Kyuubi no Yoko: The Second
by MisterJoke
Summary: I apologize to the people who liked this story, but I'm discontinuing it do... Well, to how much it sucks. It was my first try and it didn't turn out well at all. I won't take it down, but won't update it anymore. Maybe someday I can rewrite, make it a decent story... but it won't be any time soon.
1. Chapter 1

Kyuubi no Yoko: The Second

Chapter 1: The Fox, the Cat and the Dog

Ok, this is a Kyuubi fic, meaning that I'll be operating under the assumption that when the Kyuubi was sealed inside Naruto his soul was booted out and the fox is in complete control of the body. The Kyuubi will not be evil but he won't be a saint, I like playing with shades of gray. This will be M rated and there will be blood and gore, lemons will only appear a lot later on and this will be a harem fic, with mild bashing for a lot of people, and I'll stray from canon as much as I can (Never understood how no matter how he was raised, Naruto always ends up on Wave fighting Haku and Zabuza), but world events will still happen (Invasion arc and the like). Also, I will kill main-ish characters, seriously by the invasion arc you can expect two or three of the Konoha twelve to be dead (I won't kill everybody and not without reason, I just hate how both fighters have a tendency to survive death matches in Anime).Three important changes:

Uchiha Itachi is 2 years older

Inuzuka Hana will be 4 years older than Naruto (No clue how older she is in canon)

No akatzuki, I want to play with the bijus

All kinds of reviews are welcome and you can swear as much as you like, just as long as you come up with a way to fix what you didn't like.

A small figure jumped from branch to branch inside the Forest of Death, it stopped when it reached a massive hollowed tree, allowing anyone around to see it was a small child, but there wasn't anyone there, no one with a sane mind would venture inside the Forest of Death just to spy on a kid, even if he was Uzumaki Naruto, the Jinchuriki (Power of the Human Sacrifice) of the Kyuubi no Yoko (Nine-Tailed Demon Fox), well, at least that's how he was known by the people of Konohagakure no Sato (Village Hidden by Tree Leaves), but he knew the truth, he was the demon fox, not it's container, he didn't know how he knew but he labeled that as a "demon thing", he had labeled a lot of things like that, like how he was faster and stronger then a kid his age should be, his five senses where above average and he almost unlimited chakra, but then again, these could all be lies, since he had nobody to compare himself to, nobody but "Neko-san", who was better than him at everything, but said it was because he was older. But the weirdest of the "demon things" were that despite not remembering anything before he was locked in this body he was absolutely certain that his name was Kurama, he was the Kyuubi that attacked this village and he hated the Sharingan with passion, and he knew all that from the day that he was born.

Neko-san was his only friend, he would visit Kurama every two or three days, since he moved from the orphanage to the forest, since the Hokage wouldn't allow him to leave the village. Ever other week Neko-san would disappear for a few days, one day, when questioned, he explained that he was away on missions and that was the only time that the Kyuubi ever got angry at him.

(Flashback)

"Neko-san!" yelled a blond kid with a grin that threatened to split his face in two "Where were you? You've been gone for eight days!"

"I was on a very important mission, Naruto-kun" answered a 13 year-old with a ANBU uniform and a cat mask, while taking in the state of the child.

"And you didn't have a 15 minutes break to come and play with me" asked the pouting child, who's only piece of clothing were some ragged shorts, or pant, who know what they where at first?

" I had, but I wasn't in the village Naruto-kun, you see..." he stopped talking when he saw the look on the kid's face, it was a look of pain, the pain of betrayal...

"You left the village?" the youngest of the boys asked, his eyes on Itachi's feet. "You can leave? And I'm forced to stay here? Where they hate me? Where they hurt?"

"It was only for a mission, only for a short while" Itachi tried to explain.

"So?" Demanded Kurama, the pain still clear in his eyes, but overshadowed by anger "Why can't I go on mission? Why can't I go away for just a few days"

"Because you're not a shinobi" answered the older boy, hoping Naruto didn't know about vacations, if he knew civilians could leave he would be even more sure that it was something to do with him specifically, and what if he connected the dots? And found out about the tenant (that they though he had).

"So..." began the blond " If I become a shinobi, like you, I can go away, even if for a shot while?"

"Yes" was all the ANBU could answer, if he hated the village so much that he would he would walk down a path he didn't understand, just to get away from it for a few days, what would happen when he found out about the fox? The being that could give him the power to punish the village?

"What do I have to do?" asked the biju.

"You have to wait until you are eight, and join the Academy" was the answer

"Ok, I think I'll go to sleep now, bye Neko-san" said the blond as he left, not bothering to look back, and for the first time, not inviting Itachi to share whatever dinner he had.

Despite his ANBU training Itachi couldn't help but be saddened by this, he had taught the kid how to fish, told him to aim the rock where the prey would be not where it was, taught him how to clean his meal, how to cook it, what plants he could eat, and the boy had thanked him by always cooking for two, and Itachi always ate, despite the lack of seasoning and the disasters that were his first tries. He knew that if he followed the boy there would be a second meal by his fire, but it wasn't his meal anymore, the blond hadn't offered. The Uchiha just left, hoping the boy would forgive him, not for going outside, but for not taking Naruto with him, they both knew he could find a away. When Itachi returned two days later the boy had already forgiven him and never again did he not offer Itachi to share his meal, but with time the ANBU came to regret telling Naruto he could be a shinobi, since he could see that when he left the village for the first time, he might not return.

(End of Flashback)

The boy entered the hollowed tree to see something slithering in the dark, although the moon light almost couldn't enter the tree, he could clearly see the snake inside, so he carefully picked up a rock and quickly bashed it's head with it, he hated killing snakes, they tasted awful and he wasn't starving like in the orphanage, where they barely gave him any food and he couldn't hunt, so he wouldn't eat it, and it had died for nothing. He sighted and threw it far away, so as not to attract wild animals and laid in his bad of leaves.

'Only a few weeks until I turn eight, I wonder how long it will take for me to become a shinobi' he though 'Maybe Neko-san can help me, he though me a lot of stuff before, would it be to much of a bother? I won't ask, but I hope he offers' he decided before falling asleep.

A little after noon, on the following day, three genins entered the Hokage's office.

"We have come as you asked, Hokage-sama" announced the one on the middle, he had black hair and eyes, and the drawing of a red and white fan on his back.

"Good" replied a balding old man with red and white robes, sitting behind a desk and smoking a pipe "I have called you here because your sensei is still in the hospital thanks to his injuries from your last mission, and while we look for a replacement I would like you tree to carry out a very simple mission on your own"

The three clearly showed their willingness, but in different ways. The boy who spoke first had his nose so high in the air that he could see nothing but the ceiling, the second boy, dressed in a black kimono, with two red leafs on his chest and a huge one on his back, he had a long ponytail that reached the small of his back, a katana rested at his waist and red arm guards where on his arms, he locked at the Sandaime like he was unworthy of being in the same room as the old man. Finally the girl with one puppy on her head and each shoulder had large red upside-down triangles on her face, flowing brown hair, tied in a ponytail, black eyes and could barely contain her excitement.

The Hokage smiled at the girl but worried about the boys, still, he got up, activated a sound proof barrier jutsu and looked out the window, before asking "What do you think of the Kyuubi's Jinchuriki?"

The three of them knew of the secret because the Sandaime tough best that the children old enough to remember that night would know the hole truth and the punishment for revealing it, being four at the time, theirs was the youngest generation to know the secret.

The Uchiha answered first "The monster is a danger to Konoha and should be put down"

The other boy said "I trust your judgment in the matter Hokage-sama" but it looked like it took some effort to get those words all of his throat.

Before the girl could answer Sarutobi cut in "Shingen-kun, I did not ask how to act in regards of the matter, I asked what you though of him"

This time the boy couldn't keep himself from speaking his mind "If my family was not honor bound to you, Hokage-sama, I would hunt the beast down and avenge my parents death"

Sarutobi was about to thank them for their time and announce that he would have no use for them when the girl answered his question "I don't know him, so I can't really say I think anything of him.".

The Hokage turned to the window and smiled while the girls teammates glared at her, before anything could be said or done, he declared "I'll not be needing you two, you may go. Hana-chan, please stay."

Despite the boys protests the Sandaime Hokage just waited while watching the streets of Konoha bellow his office, giving up the boys went away and Hana asked "What is my mission, Hokage-sama, and can I really do it by myself?"

"Oh, yes, it's not a difficult task, but I needed someone I could trust, I think that you are not shackled by prejudice and will definably be able to help the boy".

"I understand, but what is my mission, Hokage-sama?"

"You'll take him shopping." the old man smirked when the girl and all of her dogs cocked their heads to the left with a stunned expression on their faces.

"Hokage-sama, could you please explain to me why does he need someone to take him shopping? Can't he go by himself?" she wasn't expecting a lot, especially after the Sandaime said it was not a hard task, but come on! She had better things to do with her time!

"Not just someone, you" the old man started to explain "You see Hana-chan, I am afraid that shinobi with the prejudices of your teammates would hurt the boy, or incite a mob to do it"

"But Hokage-sama, you don't really believe that do you?" she asked surprised "Konoha won't stop to hurt one kid, no matter what's inside him"

The Hokage sighted "I'm afraid they will, since they already have, something like that always happens when he leaves the forest, he's too smart and fast to be caught but I'm afraid a real shinobi might join in those hunts one days, and he won't be able to out run them. But if you are there they won't make a move, you are a heiress to your clan, and I know that you'll see him for what he truly is, just a boy, and you won't give him up to those that wish to harm him."

The girl found herself sited on one of the chairs in front of he Hokage's desk her jaw almost hitting said desk, so much it dropped, when she noticed this she took a deep breath to calm herself and answered "Don't worry Hokage-sama I'll help him alright, and if anyone tries to harm him under my watch they have to deal with Inuzuka Hana and the Three Haimaru Brothers!" she yelled out in the end, with the puppies accompanying her by howling.

"Thank you, Hana-chan" said the Hokage "please meet him in front of the training ground 44 tomorrow at 10"

"Yes, sir!" she saluted and left..


	2. Chapter 2

Kyuubi no Yoko: The Second

Chapter 2: A fox needs it's fur

AN: I've received a review hoping I wouldn't include Hinata in the harem, and ok, I can do that, I don't think the "Naruto" I'm writing would like her anyway. But I'll be listening so if there's anyone you want to see in the harem, let me know, because right now, I only have two "mates" chosen for the Kyuubi, one is an OC and the other is so OOC that she might as well be one too. Final order of business: Should Hana be a sister figure or join the harem? I can go either way, but if it's the second then they'll only get together way down the line, she's not going to sleep with a kid. Now I want to try something on this chapter, I'll have Kurama giving nicknames to most people he meets, something based on the thing he noticed the most on the person (like Neko-san), because I think that's how he would identify things inside the Forest of Death, you will see, but if you guys don't like it then let me know and I'll make him "grown out of it", I don't want to do that but I can.

Oh yeah, I forgot the disclaimer last time so: I do not own Naruto or any of it's original characters. Anything other than that can be used without asking for permission, but I would like if you let people know where you got the idea.

Well, shall we?

"So... Should we call him out, wait here or..?" Hana asked her three puppies, while they stood in front of the forest of death, a couple of minutes before 10 am.

"I say we wait" barked the first.

"We could call him, maybe his not to deep in the forest" offered the second one.

"I say we go in there and drag him out, I'm running out of patience" growled the third.

"Ok, why don't you guys decide and let me know what were going to do" said the girl while laying on a nearby bench and quickly falling asleep.

On the other side of the fence, the Kyuubi ran, and ran he fast, looking back he could barely see the tiger that was chasing him, looking forward he barely had time to jump so he wouldn't hit the fence, the tiger however, was not so lucky, head-butting the fence at full speed, luckily the fence was harder than it looked, not even budging from the impact, leaving the beast barely conscious.

"Ohhh, look at the big bad kitty! Good enough to attack a little kid but not good enough to jump a fence" taunted the second dog.

"You should be ashamed of yourself, he barely has any meat in him! Why would you hunt him?" demanded the first.

"I say we punish him!" barked the third "He's a shame to all hunters!"

And that was the scene the young Inuzuka woke up to: A tiger with a concussion, three puppies barking at him and one blond kid trying to stabilize his breathing.

"Guys, I really appreciate this but maybe you shouldn't piss him off." said the boy, while looking at the dogs.

"Wait, you can understand them?" Hana was.. Surprised? No one except the Inuzuka were supposed to be able to talk to dogs.

"The tiger as well, that's how I know he's loosing his cool" answered the boy, and now that Hana looked at him, she had an idea as too why he understood the animals. He was... Wild. His hair, which was long enough to reach his jaw, was a dark blond with some red at the end, he had small fangs on his mouth, claws on his hand and feet and whisker marks on his cheeks. His only piece of clothing were some ragged shorts and his eyes were red and slitted, he would have a nice face in a couple of years, but he was still just a kid. His body was thin and he had some muscles, but he didn't look strong, he looked like he was build for speed.

"Well it makes sense, you do look like an Inuzuka!" she said laughing, before Kurama cut in.

"Actually, the Inuzuka look like dogs or wolfs, while I look like a fox. Neko-san says we have to pay attention to all the details" the boy was obviously pleased with himself.

"Who's Neko-san?" the second dog asked, all of them disliked cats, but he hated them with passion.

"Neko-san is Neko-san, he drops by every other day" was the answer.

"A cat that can survive the Forest of Death? He might be a worthy opponent." declared the third, with far-away eyes.

"Are you the lady that's going to help me buy clothes?" the kid was already in front of Hana, it looked like he decided that the last conversation was over.

"Now, there's no need to be so polite, just call me Nee-chan! And yes, I'll be your baby sitter today!" she finished with a small smile "Oh yes, this are the Three Haimaru Brothers, the first, second and third" she explained while pointing at them.

"Nice to meet you, Kan-san (First-san), Niban-san (Second-san), Sanban-san (Third-san), Inu-nee-chan (Dog sister)" he said, bowing to each one, like Neko-san had taught him. "Let's go?" he asked, already on his away.

After regaining her composure she bolted after the kid, when she reached a few minutes of awkward silence followed, well awkward for her, the only person he talked to was Itachi, and the ANBU wasn't exactly talkative. Not being able to take it anymore, Hana asked "So.. Why are you buying clothes anyway? You look pretty comfortable in your boxers" trying to get the boy to blush.

"Oh, I am, but the Kemuri-jii-san (Smoke Old Man) said I need at least a shirt to be able to attend to the Academy" the boy answered, looking a bit crossed.

"Kemuri-jii-san? Who's that?" the girl asked, a little suspicious.

"Neko-san calls him 'Hokage-sama', but I don't know why" he said, with a hand on his chin, trying to figure out, not for the first time, why Neko-san though the old man was so important

"The Hokage! Naruto-kun his the one you need to respect! He's.." but the boy interrupted her.

"Why should I respect him? I don't even trust him! He's always smiling and treating me well, but I've never done anything to earn it, he's up to something." he said narrowing his eyes.

"But, you do realize that his the one who sent me, right?" what kind of life did this boy live, where being kind meant plotting.

"Yes, but Neko-san said I could trust you" the boy answered simply

'Again with the Neko-san..' the girl was now sure he wasn't just a cat, maybe a shinobi that looked like one? Like she looked like a dog? "But you know Hokage-sama is the one that keeps you safe from the villagers.

"Then why did I have to move to a forest?" he asked quietly.

"Why did you go there? Weren't you safe at the orphanage?" she asked just as quietly

"I was at first, but I think it's just because the villagers didn't have the stomach to hurt a little kid, but as I got older I didn't look as fragile, so they started bumping on me on the street, dropping whatever they were carrying on my head, and the glares just got worse. I could tell I wasn't safe for much longer, I had to get away." he finished, almost whispering.

Hana was about to ask what he meant by "glares" but they reached the main shopping district, and she understood, some people would stare at the boy with such hate that she was surprised he didn't run away crying, others would smirk evilly at him and then see her and look away, muttering curses. Others would, like he said, go out of their way to drop things on him, or just bump him, fortunately living in the forest made his instincts sharp, so he still had not being hit by anything.

Needless to say she was getting angry, so she decided to ask something that was bugging her since they met "How come you don't stink? I mean, you leave in a forest, do you bath in a river?"

Kurama was caught completely of guard by the question but he managed to answer "Uh, yeah, Neko-san said I'll get sick if I didn't clean myself" while he was distracted a middle-aged man managed to "bump" him, actually kneeing the almost-eight year-old in the stomach. "Hey! Watch where you're going freak! You hurt my knee, and I'm gonna have to punish you.." he trailed off reaching for the kid.

But he never managed to reach him, when his wrist was grabbed by the Hana "What the hell, ya bastard! Ya think I'm just gonna stand here and let you hurt a kid!".

"That's not just a 'kid' and you know it..." but she interrupted him.

"Oh, he's just a kid old timer, and if a kid can hurt your knee then just imagine what a kunochi can do to ya." she finished with a evil grin, making the man try to back away, but she didn't let go at first, so when she did he was pulling with such strength that he rolled twice before landing on his ass."

"Thank you, Inu-nee-chan!" the blond said, after the man was long gone.

"You're welcome, Naruto-kun." she answered with a smile "Come on, I know a good clothing store around here" she took his hand and dragged him away.

"Welcome to.." the cashier trailed off when she saw who had walked in to the store, her smile disappeared and eyes narrowed at the blond kid.

"Yeah, it's great ta be here, don't ya think so Naruto-kun! Come on, let's make you look cool!" Hana said, calming down at the end and dragging Naruto to the kid's section.

After a while they had chosen a couple of outfits (all missing shoes, Kurama refused to even try them on) and approached the cashier, who glared at them, scanned the clothes without a single comment and smirked "That will be: 32,600 yen (little less then 400 dollars)".

"What the hell are ya talking about, ya bitch! That shouldn't even be 8,100 (little less then a 100)!" Hana growled.

"Sorry, Inuzuka-san, but we have a monster tax" sure, she would have to drop the price or risk angering the entire Inuzuka clan, or at least the ones who where stupid enough to associate themselves with demons, but she would let the beast know he was not welcomed here.

"Yeah, I'm used to it" sighted Kurama, while putting the money on the counter and waiting for the girl to move "What? I don't even get change anymore?"

"Like we're going to accept your money! It's obvious you stole it!" she declared smirking.

"I did not, Neko-san brings me my allowance every week, since I have no use for money, I just save it!" he defended himself.

"Neko? You expect me to believe that a cat brings you money? You must be insane, freak.." but before she could say anymore Hana cut in, finally realizing who Neko-san was.

"Neko-san is the ANBU with the cat mask, ya moron! He's the one that protects the kid from idiots like ya, and the allowance is sent by the Hokage, so you're going to take his money and give him the real price for his clothes, 'cause we both know how many Inuzuka shop here and that I can make this dump go broke with a snap of my fingers"

"Well,..." she almost started before.

"You're gonna shut the fuck up, 'cause if I hear another sound from your general direction I'm gonna burn this place down!" Hana was fuming right now, even Kurama, who she was defending, was a little scared, but a lot more grateful.

After leaving the store Hana dragged the Kyuubi by his hands down the street, she didn't seem to be going anywhere but the demon decided that it was best to wait until she calmed down, he paid attention to the street around him, he didn't really want to see the glares but he knew that rocks and knifes could fly from anywhere so you either pay attention or pay with blood. Then he saw two man approaching his group, one had eyes only for Inu-nee-chan and the other was Neko-san, but he wasn't wearing his mask, not like it made a difference, same built, same smell and same way of walking.

"Hana-chan!" yelled the younger boy "How did the mission Hokage-sama gave you go?"

"Huh, horrible, the people of this village are ten times more stupid then I though they were" answered the exasperated Inuzuka.

"Are you sure Hana? I mean if everyone agrees with something and you're the only one that thinks differently aren't you the one that's wrong?" asked the Uchiha with a smile. He still had not seen the kid.

"What is right and wrong is not decided by the amount of people who agree, but by proof, right Neko-san?" asked the boy, smiling at Itachi.

'How dare he correct me? An Uchiha! He's nothing but a demon! And how dare he refer to Itachi-sama like that! Like they were friends, equals' He moved so fast Hana didn't even see the kick flying toward the smiling blond, but Itachi did, catching it with one arm.

"That's right Naruto-kun, you must always strive for the truth, because there is never a situation where it's better not to know, truth and knowledge are weapons just as important to a shinobi as a kunai or a smoke bomb" he finished with a smile "I'm sorry Naruto-kun but I am busy, so I must go." he said, while bowing slightly and walking away stopping only to stare at the younger Uchiha until he started following again.

"You know Uchiha Itachi!" gasped Hana

"If that's how you call Neko-san, then eyes" he answered, before adding "Inu-nee-chan, I'm hungry and I can't hunt here..."

Hana then decided to treat Naruto to lunch, so after giving a dozen of waiters black eyes and swelling lips (and even more ankle bites, from the Haimaru Brothers), they found themselves in a ramen stand called "Ichiraku's", run by an middle-aged man and a girl about Hana's age, Teuchi and Ayame. They didn't mind Naruto, who was beaming at that discovery, but it was clear that Hana was even happier than the boy, that is until he tried ramen, that stuff was delicious! He wondered if it was because a real cook made it or just because it was awesome, he would have to find a way to try other foods and compare.

After a smiling goodbye, Hana lead Naruto to the Forest of Death, a few feet from the fence.

"Are you sure you don't want to stay at the compound Naruto-kun? I can get you a nice room, with a comfortable bed..." she paused trying to tempt Naruto, again.

"I don't need it Inu-nee-chan" he said with a smile, but then grew serious "besides, it's not like I trust the Inuzuka clan, I just trust you."

She immediately pulled the boy in a tight hug, squishing him against her chest, there wasn't much there, but she was still growing, and there was already something so the end result was a flustered biju, that was hugging her back nevertheless. Hugging is nice, he decided.

"Ok, but if you change your mind you let me know Naruto-kun." she insisted "and I'll be visiting you as often as I can so try to stay near the entrance so you can hear the brother's barking, and be careful of snakes and that tiger, and don't forget to wear one of your new jackets to sleep, or you will catch a cold, and..." she continued, apparently oblivious to the fact that Kurama had lived in this forest for the past two years.


	3. Chapter 3

Kyuubi no Yoko: The Second

Chapter 3: School's in

AN: I've been having a lot of free time on my hands, so I'll update this story pretty often for a while, but please don't expect a new update every day. Writing is a lot harder then I thought, I figured I could get to the genin's graduation in one really long or two chapters, boy was I wrong (it's also a lot more fun then I though it would be), I think it will take at least four but hey, at least in this one we have some fight scenes!

Nevertheless, disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of it's original characters. Anything other then that can be used without asking for permission, but I would like if you let people know where you got the idea.

Well, shall we?

The kids walked into the gym in an organized line, besides or between their parents or guardians, a lot of them didn't seem pleased that their parents would watch the first day of classes but Kurama though it was to be expected, all animals took care of their young, at least until they were adults. Kurama wouldn't mind if he had to be alone, well, he wouldn't tell anyone he minded, same thing really, but he wasn't! To his right was Inu-nee-chan and to his left Neko-aniki (he asked the boy to call him that after he heard him referring to Hana, well he wanted to be called "aniki" but that would do), so not only was he not alone, he had his two most important people with him.

A lot of the parents weren't pleased that the Kyuubi's Jinchuriki was in the same class as their kids, but the first to complain was quickly silenced by the glares sent by Itachi, Hana and the Haimaru Brothers, funny how a 15 year-old, a 12 year-old and tree puppies are enough to shut someone's mouth without moving a finger, if they're angry enough.

"Hello and welcome to the shinobi academy of our village, I am Umino Iruka and I'll be this classes main teacher. I will be teaching this class for the next four years, with the help of the assistant instructor Mizuki." said a tanned man with a scar running across his face through the bridge of his nose, while pointing at another man with shoulder length grey hair, both where wearing the standard chunin vest, with black shinobi pants and sandals "this class will begin every week with a exercise and taijutsu class ("Hand to hand fighting" whispered Itachi so just Naruto could hear), now usually we hold off the actual sparring until a few weeks into the semester but I'm sure the parents present today would rather see how class go for most of the year, rather then how they go only at the beginning" the shinobi parents seemed pleased with the news, the civilian parents? Not so much.

"Well, since we don't know the strength of our new students, we'll be choosing random parings, I'll choose a name and Mizuki will choose another, so we can evaluate the children." said Iruka with a smile "First I'll choose.. Shikamaru Nara"

"What a drag..." came a double whisper that only the shinobi and the Kyuubi where able to hear, from a tall man with a black pineapple ponytail and his mini-me, the man was wearing a jonin vest and his son black shorts and a grey shirt. The boy didn't look very eager to go and his father didn't look like he had the energy to push him, luckily the mother was there to kick his ass in to gear, literally.

"I'll go with... Inuzuka Kiba" called Mizuki, from behind the list of names

"Uhuuu! Watch me Kaa-san! Nee-san! I'll kick his ass" said a boy in a grey hooded jacket

"Naru-chan" called Hana "That's my other otouto, I know he'll be a handful but please don't let him get into too much trouble ok?"

"Uhh... I'll try, but not that hard" answered the blond while staring at the boy who was taunting his opponent.

"I guess that's all I can ask" replied the girl, patting him in the head.

"Begin!" called Mizuki, who would be acting as referee.

The fight was completely one sided, without Shikamaru being able to trow a single punch, but one think Kurama noticed was that he was only hit on his arms and legs, never in his torso or face, when the fight was over he saw the differences between the two boys, one (the winner) proud but completely out of breath and the other calm and collected, he understood why, 'Heihou-kun' (Strategy-kun) had tired out a stronger opponent with little damage to himself, the other boy was ready for an ally to finish off.

A few fights went by until anything noteworthy happened, well more interesting then noteworthy, that being a cat fight with a lot of pushing, clawing and hair pulling between a pink haired girl and a platinum blond, from what Neko-aniki had told him and from what he saw from the last fights, they would need a lot of work to became kunochi, still the blond girl was really nice to look at, but she didn't seem like mate material, not that he would worry about that for a few years, he tried to convince himself.

Then Iruka frowned and called "Uzumaki Naruto"

To which Mizuki answered without missing a beat "Uchiha Sasuke".

Most people though fitting the black haired boy, with a blue shirt and white shorts had been staring daggers at the blond, who was wearing a grey jacket zipped up until his neck and black pants, but no shoes. Before he could go meet his opponent a hand was placed on Kurama's shoulder "Sasuke is strong for his age, don't let him hit you" said Itachi, the Kyuubi just nodded and walked away.

"Aren't you worried about your little brothers fighting?" asked Hana.

"Sasuke needs to get humbled a bit, it will do him good in the long run." answered Itachi.

The Uchiha was about to charge when he noticed the other boy, just standing there, another person might have noticed his eyes were too hard and focused for just "standing there" but Sasuke was too angry "Aren't you going to take a stance? Are you mocking me?" he shouted.

"I don't know any stances, but maybe this will help" said Kurama, hunching slightly and bending his knees a little "better?"

His answer was a black, blue and white blur charging before the fight was officially started.

"Begin!" called Mizuki, already planning on counting every slight touch as a point to Sasuke and only perfect undeniable hits for the monster, shame he couldn't.

Sasuke proved completely unable to hit Kurama, he was fighting in his family's style perfectly, he was sure, his stance was solid and he put his all in every blow. So why couldn't he hit him? The other kid wasn't even using a taijutsu style! He was just trowing himself away from the strikes, his arms flying wildly as if he forgot he had them, but the Uchiha was still unable to grab them. He would spin away from every punch, jump over every kick, until Sasuke lost faith in his style and started attacking randomly, one might think they were the same now, but thanks the Uchiha's attempt to "go wild" they could see the efficiency of the Kyuubi's form, every time he moved, his members would either join the body making him as small a target as possible or bend in weird angles so that they could never be predicted.

Soon enough Sasuke was tired, angry and desperate he threw a punch that was so slow and so heavy that Kurama had time to drag his arm all the way back and put everything he had in a punch, straight in the other boys face. The kid was trowed back rolling thrice and landing on his face with his ass up in the air, completely unconscious.

After a few seconds of silence "Did I win?" asked the one standing.

"That was a coward's way of fighting! You should be..." started Mizuki just to be cut off.

"If you're not going to value strategy then you would be better off teaching them to bash their foreheads together until one is knocked out!" yelled a woman who was obviously Hana's mother.

"I agree, even if his form is completely bizarre, he has showed us he is smarter and faster then the average kid." normally Hiashi wouldn't have bothered helping the boy, but seen an Uchiha put in his place always pleased him.

"Well.." struggled Mizuki, until Iruka came to his rescue.

"Correct, and I declare Uzumaki Naruto the winner, Mizuki please take Sasuke to the infirmary." and along with the parents he noticed a displeasing (to some) scene, the students were looking at Kurama with admiration, he stood there, with a grin that showed fanged teeth, wild hair covering one of his eyes, looking cautiously at the unconscious Uchiha, ready for anything. The Uchiha on the other hand still had his butt in the air, his clothes that where clean before where now rugged and sweaty, his hair that was once combed and styled was now messy and dirty, blood flowed from his nose and covered his face. It was a sight to behold, the prince of shinobi had been brought down by the prince of beasts.

The prince that could still walk, did just that, heading for his "siblings", when he got there he was congratulated and petted on the head, and he smiled. It wasn't the same smile was before, this one wasn't adrenaline induced, this one reached his eyes.

Coughing to take everyone's attention from the blond boy, Iruka announced the next match.

Half an hour later Iruka lead them all to class, during said walk, most parents took the time to tell the children to stay away from Naruto, now, if they had said that about any other kid, the students would have though there was something wrong with the kid, something that they couldn't see, but their parents knew better. But the problems with the boy were so clear that the kid decided something else, their parents didn't like him just because he was a rebel, the boys saw a rough, blunt friend through thick and thin, and the girls saw a wild, rough exterior that would turn kind and romantic, if still a little rough, for them alone, so yeah, they weren't going to stay away from him.

There were only three opinions that weren't close to that, a white eyed girl tough he was scary, a girl who's brown hair was so long that it reached her ankles though he was really interesting and Shikamaru couldn't help but shake the feeling the blond was staring at him.

When they entered the class Shikamaru sat at last table, as far away from the black board as he could and tried to sleep, it took a couple seconds until "Heihou-kun, can I sit next to you?" he opened his eyes to see Kurama smiling.

"Heihou? So I am so weak that you've already decided my role in the battlefield?" he asked sarcastically.

"Nah, you're Heihou-kun because you planned the whole fight in your head before it even started!" said the blond with a smile, while taking his sit.

"You give me too much credit, it will be too troublesome if you start expecting things from me" said the boy, his head back at the table, talking through his arms.

"No way! By the middle of the fight you were already predicting his moves and moving before him!" still smiling, if there was onething he respected where those that could survive, brains, brawls, you could use anything, and he had a feeling Heihou-kun could.

"Fine... Just don't tell anyone..." he had giving up lowering the boy's image of him.

A couple of minutes of silence that didn't bother either of them, until.

"Uh, hi!" Shikamaru didn't even consider moving, the person was probably talking to Naruto anyway.

"Hello" answered Kurama with a small nod, recognizing the blond girl from the cat fight but now he saw something he didn't notice back them, her eyes, her pupils was so large she almost didn't have iris, they where a very faint blue, it reminded him of a huge lake, he thought they were really beautiful.

"Uh.. Hello? Anyone in there?" she asked laughing nervously.

"Oh, sorry I got distracted by your eyes, what do you need Manako-chan?" he asked hoping to delay her going away.

"I asked if I could sit next to you." she said blushing but smiling with a little confidence "My name's Ino by the way." the desks were meant for three students, Shikamaru had sited on the first chair from the right and Kurama next to him, so the one on the left was empty, but not for long.

"Of course you can, oh yeah, this is Heihou-kun" he said pointing at the sleeping boy, who grunted "Shikamaru", "and Heihou-kun, this is Manako-chan!" he said pointing a Ino.

'He's not going to give up is he... Well, it's kind of cute' she though while sitting, after a couple of minutes of wondering how to break the awkward silence, she looked up and noticed to three things, one: the silence was only bothering her, two: Naruto-kun was watching the people in the classroom, he wasn't studying them, trying to catch every detail, he was just letting his eyes wonder, three: he seemed surprised by the simplest things like a girl braiding another's hair or two boys arm wrestling.

Before she could ask him why, a girl with really long brown hair, large round glasses, a red sleeveless shirt and brown shorts approached her "Hello, my name is Oonishi Noriko, can you switch seats with me?" she asked smiling.

"Why?" Ino said, but though 'No way in hell!"

"Because I want to sit next to Naruto-kun! He's really interesting" she answered smiling without the slightest blush.

"No way! I like sitting here!" said the blond girl, clutching her chair.

"Well, how do you know you're not bothering Naruto-kun!" Noriko's smile was long gone.

"I asked him if I could sit here! And he said yes!" Ino defended herself, but was she being a bother?

"Maybe he was just being polite! Say Naruto-kun..." but she was cut off by Iruka's yelling.

"QUIET DOWN! CLASS IS GOING TO START! EVERYBODY TO YOUR SEATS AND I DON'T WANT TO HEAR A SINGLE WHISPER!" in a matter of seconds everyone was seated but there where whispering, some students could swear they saw Iruka's head swell like a balloon, other where muttering something about a genjutsu.

The sensei then began an explanation on the founding of Konoha, and Kurama could only hope that there where few classes like this, to put it simply: class was boring, but he forced himself to pay attention, Neko-aniki swore that no information was useless, though he was sure Tsumeato-sensei (Scar-sensei) was trying to prove him wrong.

Half hour into hell the door swung open and a very angry Sasuke walked in the classroom, followed by his father, sitting in the only empty seat, close to the pink haired girl from the cat fight, he didn't acknowledged anyone as he walked in and seated, he just stared daggers at the Kurama until Iruka called him, telling to pay attention, he wouldn't yell, he wouldn't risk irritating Uchiha Fugaku (the kid's father) more, hell even he could fell the killing intent he was sending at the blond kid, Kurama could barely breath and was almost passing out when..

"Oto-san! Control yourself!" Itachi's voice rang clearly in the silent classroom.

"Itachi you fool! That thing embarrassed the Uchiha's name.." but was cut off.

"He defeated ONE Uchiha in ONE sparring match, hardly the shame of a entire clan, now if you try to harm Naruto-kun again I will have to choose between my clan and my otouto." when Sasuke saw his brother order his father he was shocked, while the elder Uchiha had been angry, now they had exchanged faces, Sasuke was fuming, for a while now Itachi would barely look at him and now he was calling that beast-boy his brother? Fugaku on the other hand was no longer angry, now he was terrified, if Itachi betrayed the Uchiha the Hokage would know of his plans, it was that monster's fault! He would get rid of the demon and have his son back! Not even bothering to look at the beast he was planning on killing he just stormed off.

Once he was gone Itachi turned to Iruka "Sensei, I apologize for that scene, please continue your lecture."


	4. Chapter 4

Kyuubi no Yoko: The Second

Chapter 4: Fox fire

AN: Good morning, good evening and good night, whenever you're reading this, a couple of things before we get started: the people that have been sending PMs with suggestions and critics, can you guys review instead? I've decided to judge my worth as a human being based on the number of reviews, but don't worry, the PMs are and will still be taken in consideration. Now with those PMs and one review I'm pretty sure I've been asked to add every single female in the world of Naruto to the harem, so.. Yeah.. I'm going to go with the one's that have been asked more, which so far surprisingly (at least for me) the one that has been asked the most is Tenten, she's never the first but she's in almost every list.. Oh and Mzr90, sorry mate, but Kurama will not be fucking Sasuke's and Itachi's mother, I really don't want to do that.

Nevertheless, disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of it's original characters. Anything other then that can be used without asking for permission, but I would like if you let people know where you got the idea.

Well, shall we?

A few months into the semester and a lot of changes had occurred, for one thing, Kurama discovered a couple of new "demon things" and he was really pleased with this ones, when they started working on jutsus the Kyuubi was able to pick them up incredibly fast, why? Because he could feel the chakra in his sensei, he could almost see the thin layer that they created above their skin and molded to take the form they wanted, and so he learned the Henge no Jutsu (Transformation Technique), he could also see that when they simply moved that layer of chakra away from them, while maintaining it's form, they just made it thicker and thus visible, so he learned the Bunshin no Jutsu (Clone Technique) and finally when they left the layer on their skin but linked it with another object that they had covered with chakra, they would jolt both sides of the linking string and then switch places, the Kawarimi no Jutsu (Body Replacement Technique). He didn't understand why he didn't need seals, when he asked Neko-aniki, Itachi just did the jutsus without seals as well, saying Naruto was just talented. Another one of the new "demon things" was that he didn't run out of chakra, he passed out of regular exhaustion before the chakra's kind, controlling it all was also very easy, he really liked learning jutsu, but neither Inu-nee-chan nor Neko-aniki would teach him, the first said that her jutsu where Inuzuka exclusive, the second said it was not wise to anger the Uchiha even more, by teaching him their techniques. Kurama understood, but that didn't mean he liked it, especially since "Fundo" (Anger) apparently knew one.

(Flashback)

Taijutsu class once again, and the kids where training by hitting training dummies, Iruka had placed Sasuke and Naruto next to each other, thinking that their rivalry would make them work harder, and that was true, but in different ways, the Uchiha was trowing himself madly at the dummy, putting his all into every single blow, he wanted to dent the wood, like his brother did, shame he didn't know his brother used chakra to do that, while Kurama was more collected, trying to figure out what hurt his opponent more, a punch or an elbow, a kick or a knee, pretty much ignoring everyone around him. Sasuke was pleased with himself, he knew for a fact that this was a competition and he couldn't help but laugh at the pitiful blows of the blond, so he decided to prove his superiority.

"So, you really are pleased with that pitiful excuse for taijutsu?" taunted the Uchiha "let me show you the difference between you and me, you baka" forming a few deliberately slow hand seals he took a deep breath, gathered all the chakra he could in his lungs and yelled "Katon: Gokakyu no Jutsu! (Fire release: Great Fireball Technique)" before spitting a massive fireball and incinerating the training dummy.

He then turned to see the shocked and scared face of his rival, only to see the boy had only opened his eyes a little more.

"Impressive" said Kurama "but not good enough" who was he kidding? That thing was awesome!

"Not good enough!" the Uchiha looked ready to rip the blonds head off.

"Yeah, it's deadly alright, but it wouldn't hit me either, you haven't gotten any faster Fundo." thank kami that was true, because he had a feeling the Uchiha was about to try again, "Katon: Gokakyu no Jutsu".

Another fireball came, this one was smaller, slower and resulted with the Uchiha having to kneel so as not to fall, but it was still plenty to kill an academy student. When the fire died out the Uchiha looked up smirking, just to frown. Where the baka should have been where the remains of a training dummy, and looking around he saw Kurama standing where Shikamaru's dummy once was.

"Told you it wouldn't hit me" smirked the Kyuubi, but inside he was frowning, he wanted that jutsu.

Two good things came from that, Sasuke got detention, for attempted murder, just detention, life was hard for the Uchiha. And Manako-chan (Eye-chan) started to look more like mate material, not that Kurama cared! Honestly!

Naruto-kun was still getting yelled at for taunting the Uchiha, so Ino approached the sleeping Shikamaru "Wow, Naruto-kun is really awesome!" she said beaming, as if the achievement was somehow her's "I bet he could even stop that fireball if he wanted to!"

"How on earth would he do that?" just because he was Naruto's friend this girl seemed to think Shikamaru though he was a god or something.

"I don't know, but he could probably find a way!" she declared with unwavering resolve.

"I couldn't, Manako-chan, that's why I had to dodge" answered the blond taking his sit.

"But, but.." she started, only to be interrupted.

"So troublesome... Look, nobody's perfect, not even Arai ("Wild", two could play that game), the sooner you understand this the sooner you'll stop waiting for your 'prince charming'" Shikamaru said looking at the ceiling.

"And sooner you do that, the sooner you'll start worrying about important things, like working hard now, so you don't die in your first mission after you graduate, I'm really worried about you Manako-chan, I think you'll be in danger once you become a kunochi." said Kurama, never breaking eye contact.

Ino was torn, she was happy he worried about her, but sad that he was pretty much sure she would get herself killed as soon as she was able. The life of a kunochi is always dangerous, so no matter how strong she got he would still worry, but if she got stronger, he would respect her, like he does the lazy kid, so she decided to work hard, even if for the wrong reasons... As for seeing people's flaws, it took her a little while longer, it started when she decided to take her training serious and asked Naruto-kun to help her study, with a few second intentions, that's when she noticed that he was pretty smart but one: the lazy boy was smarter and two: he had a pretty difficult time focusing, he really wasn't perfect, but she could live with that.

(Flashback Over)

He soon started his training to learn the Gokakyu no Jutsu, and failed miserably at first, he had done what he saw the Uchiha do, gather chakra and air in your lungs, mix them and spit it out, the result was a pretty strong wind, not exactly deadly, after a few days of this training all he managed was a stronger wind, strong enough to send someone rolling but not much else, that's when he though "Maybe Neko-aniki was wrong, and I'm not talented... So I should use the hand seals!" and he did just that, it was easy to remember the seal, the way the Uchiha had rubbed them in his face, kami knows why, and he had been paying a lot of attention. So: 'Horse, Tiger, Ram, Monkey, Boar, Horse, Tiger, Katon: Gokakyu no Jutsu!' he chanted in his mind, while doing the seals, gathered all the chakra and air he could in his lungs and spit a massive fireball, the size of the Uchiha's second one, but he wasn't even winded!

"That was very impressive, otouto." Itachi's voice rang in the clearing.

"Oh, thanks Neko-aniki!" replied Kurama grinning.

"I need to talk to you about something very serious." Itachi said, scanning the woods for any sign of a listener.

"What is it?" asked the blond.

"I'll be leaving the village tomorrow night." answered the teen.

"Well, when will you be back?" odd, Neko-aniki hadn't left the village since the first day of classes.

"Never." Itachi's voice was a little louder then a whisper.

"But why? Can I come with you?" a little despair in his voice.

"Because I will do something very bad tomorrow, otouto, and I will no longer be welcomed in Konoha. And when I leave I will be forced to do even more bad things, you would not be safe if you were to come with me. And before you say anything, here you have Hana-chan and Shikamaru-san to stand by your side, along with the fact that people will not openly target you, but if you come, you will be my weakness. And you will lead us to our deaths, Ritoru Kitsune (little fox)." he said all this with a sad smile.

"Then when I grown stronger... Can I join you?" tears in the blonds eyes.

"Yes, I will find a way to contact you when I am sure you're at least at chunin level, then I can protect you and train you." Neko-aniki was smiling for real now "Hey, Kurama-otouto, what do you say I buy you dinner tonight?"

The Kyuubi couldn't believe this, Neko-aniki knew his secret, was still worried about him and would, eventually, help him leave the village? He couldn't trust his voice not to crack, so he just nodded, smiling.

* * *

><p>The next night came way too fast, Itachi had no real love for the Uchiha clan, but nobody should really enjoy genocide, but he would do what he had to, he would protect the peace of Konoha and Kurama-kun. This was just a regular night, thus most of the Uchiha were already asleep, only a few guards patrolled the compound, those were quickly trapped in genjutsu and dispatched. Next he entered the houses, cutting the throats of his sleeping clansman. Until he reached his house, he looked down at his mother's calm face, she was a kind and peaceful woman, but she knew exactly what was going on and didn't lift a finger to stop it, that thought gave him the strength to slice open her neck, with a single choke she died, with a single choke she woke Fugaku.<p>

"Itachi! What have you done!" the Uchiha clan head was already halfway across the room.

"I've chosen, Oto-san, between the Uchiha and all of Konoha" his tanto (small katana) cut deep into his father's leg.

The elder Uchiha ran through the hand seals in a flash "Katon: Goka Mekkyaku! (Fire Release: Great Fire Annihilation!)" destroying Itachi and three quarters of the house. Only to have the tanto jammed into his back. "How?"

Itachi just shook his head "Kawarimi, such a simple technique, yet most forget it." removing his sword from his father's spine, Itachi walked outside where he found Sasuke.

"Nii-san..." Sasuke cried "Why?"

"The Uchiha were planning a coup, they were a danger to Konoha." he tried to sound emotionless.

"But you are Uchiha!" the boy sobs almost kept him from talking.

"Unfortunately." he moved in for the kill, but stopped, behind his former brother, stood four men in black cloaks with white human-animal hybrid masks "ROOT? I can't really hope to defeat you all before your reinforcements arrive. Very well, at least let Danzo know that I am watching and if he makes a move against my otouto, I will destroy everything he has built."

One of the cloaked men nodded "But you were about to kill me!" cried Sasuke.

"You haven't been my brother for a few years now, Sasuke." he used Shunshin no Jutsu (Body Flicker Technique) to disappear. In a few seconds Sasuke started hyperventilating and the ROOT operative that had nodded knocked him out, creating a Kage Bunshin (Shadow Clone) to carry the boy to the hospital, while ordering his men to salvage the bodies, which they did, with the help of more Kage Bunshin.

* * *

><p>The rumors spread like wild fire, one night the Uchiha were one of the most powerful clans in Konoha, in the morning they were all dead, except for two, one in the hospital and the other a missing nin responsible for the butchering that took place. And everyone knew why, or though they did, there wasn't a single person in the village who hadn't heard of Itachi's declaration in the classroom and only a few who didn't know of the Uchiha that were seen walking around the forest of death and then, never seen again, it looked like Fugaku indeed made his son choose between his clan and the Jinchuriki. Now, most people would have called for the boys death, like the last Uchiha in Konoha was doing, but they felt it was unwise, especially since no one in the council was backing Sasuke.<p>

Inside the Forest of Death, Kurama was panting while staring at a badly burned tiger corpse, that was his third tiger today, along with two giant snakes and four boars. He didn't have the strength to face any shinobi yet, so this beast where going to be his challenge for as long as they could harm him. He would train, he would fight and he would survive until Itachi came for him. And then? He would be free.


	5. Chapter 5

Kyuubi no Yoko: The Second

Chapter 5: Kekkei Genkai

AN: No, Kurama will not have a Kekkei Genkai, he will just pretend to. He will also not gain the memories of the the first Kyuubi or his techniques, he will have somethings similar to a Kekkei Genkai, but no one will teach him how to use it and he will have to figure everything out by himself, you'll see why in a few chapters. And... Uh... First real drama at the end of the chapter, I've never done drama before so I don't know if it's good, this is something I will really need help with, please let me know what you think (even if what you think is "get this crap out of the story"). And no, Kurama is one and only, all the other Jinchuriki will be exactly that, Jinchuriki. Oh yeah, I'll say this now so that there is plenty of time for you guys to tell me no (I'll will only NOT proceed with this idea if it receives an inhuman amount of hate), but I plan on pairing Yugito with Gaara, why? Because they are my favorite Jinchuriki (Well, Gaara is, I just think Yugito has a lot of potential as a character, she's also really hot (and there is a reason I killed Naruto before this fic even started)). Also, so far things have been rather black and white, not the grey I have promised, well that's going to change in this chapter. I'm about to start showing the ugly of the main characters, no, won't turn any of them into monsters that would sacrifice all of their friends to gain power, but they won't be saints.

Nevertheless, disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of it's original characters. Anything other then that can be used without asking for permission, but I would like if you let people know where you got the idea.

Well, shall we?

Three years have passed since the Uchiha massacre, Kurama has just started his forth and final year in the Academy, and a lot has changed, for example, there's a three-way battle for the title of "Rookie of the Year", one contender being, much to everyone's surprise, but Kurama's, Nara Shikamaru, at first the boy though that the tests and lesson's at the academy where too troublesome to bother with, but he soon found something that was an even bigger bother, that being the Kyuubi's speeches about how he was "decreasing his chances of survival" by "not knowing his limits" which would lead to him "overestimating his brain" and getting himself killed. And so he started taking, instead of sleeping through the test, and guess what? Since the second month of classes, of their first year, he has been the top student in all academic subjects, now to the biggest surprise, especially for him: He liked it. The score for each and every test where announced aloud by the sensei so as to promote rivalries and competition between the students, so after every test, when Iruka called his name, Shikamaru would lift his head from his table and see most of the class staring at him with envy in their eyes, he remembered looking at the village's jonin with those eyes, he knew they were the one's that survived, that made a difference in the village, the one's that mattered. And now people were looking at him like he used to. Putting his brain to work the realized that if he wanted to "matter" he couldn't be a "one trick pony", as Arai had put it: "Strategy only works if it takes your enemy more then ten seconds to kill you". So he started taking the physical classes seriously as well, but he didn't have the same success, if he got all tens in the paper, he got around eights in the gym, finishing with eighteen for a total score.

Kurama was the exact opposite, a perfect score in the field and always around eight in the classroom, is not that he wasn't smart, he was very intelligent and he studied hard, but the tests they had where made so that it was easy enough to pass, but almost impossible to ace, the only two students had aced any tests in this 3 years, were Heihou and Haruno Sakura, some pinked haired loud mouth that was the president of Sasuke's fan club, but she only managed that twice, though she still had the second highest test score, almost every time. Back to what matters, Kurama also had a total score of eighteen, now he could have gotten ahead of Heihou when the latter was still too lazy to write down the answers on his tests, but he also had a small down period, when Neko-aniki left Konoha he tried isolating himself from everyone, but found out that he couldn't, Inu-nee-chan, Manako-chan, Heihou and Kegawa-chan (Fur-chan, (Noriko)) were his family and he needed them now, more then ever. With time he returned to himself, but in those few days any doubt that his class had that he had corrupted Itachi and orchestrated the Uchiha massacre disappeared (expect for Sasuke's, but what did you expect?), during those days they didn't hear a single speech about how Shikamaru had the potential to survive (which they used to hear at least twice a day), he hadn't been caught staring a Ino's eyes once (which happened so often they didn't even count) and he had just ignored Noriko's questions, instead of avoiding them. It was clear for everyone (except the Uchiha) that he would have rather be targeted by the Uchiha his entire life then loose his brother. But that was a long time ago, by the time the village was no longer fearful of Itachi's return, and was calling for the boy's execution he was back to his old self.

The last contender, and favorite, for the title was Uchiha Sasuke, he was the favorite because he has the hole school, except his own class, cheering for him, as well as council members visiting the school often and showering him with praises, he was the heir and last hope of the Uchiha clan, of the Sharingan, and the council would do anything to keep him happy, they even proposed to rig his tests, as well as Shikamaru's and the demon's, so he would surpass them, but the motion was quickly denied by the Hokage, he even stationed a couple of ANBU at the school to make sure the council didn't try it anyway, but he couldn't keep them from spoiling the boy rotten and poisoning his mind against Kurama and Shikamaru, as long they didn't mention any S-class secrets they were completely free to "encourage the rivalry between some students". But spoiled or not, the Uchiha was in the race by his own merit, he might not be as athletic as the Kyuubi or as smart as the Nara heir, but he was the second best in gym, usually he would have scored perfect tens in that class, but that's not how the grading system worked for those classes, the best student would set the ten and as close you got to his time in the races, or his points in sparring, was as close as your grade came to ten, which meant Sasuke always got something around nine, because when it came to anything physical, he couldn't match the blond in anything, for all his talk about speed and dodging, by now, Kurama was stronger than Sasuke. In academics he also never beat Shikamaru, his grades, again, always close to nine, once or twice he beat Sakura, but never Shikamaru, still his grades also added up to eighteen, his down time also being after Itachi's departure, but for different reasons.

Still, this year would settle that particular competition, going back to the mere mortals that weren't in the race, we have two additions to Kurama's group, one he liked a little, another he couldn't care less. The one he payed attention to was Akimichi Choji, or Niku-kun (Meat-kun), he though the boy would survive a long time in the woods, since he wouldn't have to look for food for some time, the kid was also kind, polite and would share his food with them, but he had no confidence and was content to watch Arai and Heihou from far, like he knew he wasn't good enough to even try and stand with them, and neither of them where the type to go help someone until they earned that help, you don't have to get up after you fall, but you have to at least try. The other one was Hyuga Hinata, Mugon-san (Silence-san), although she wasn't afraid, anymore, to be in the same room as Naruto-san since Itachi's departure, it's kind of hard to be afraid of someone that does nothing but mope around, but now that he was back to his usual, survival-of-the-fittest, self she was too afraid to talk to him, so he just ignored her.

Ino had the three best years of her life, so far, at first she was worried about all the competition she would have for Naruto-kun, but thanks to the whole Uchiha thing, the only girls she had to worry about where the one's in her class, and between those the only real danger was Noriko, but she was winning, there was no doubt about that, whenever he wasn't focused on something he would be looking at her, he claimed to like only her eyes, but she could see his own following her hair, her mouth, all of her movements, he was even worried about her enough to help her discover her elemental affinity! Now, what happened was: Kurama couldn't figure why he couldn't make a fireball as big as Sasuke's, who continued showing off that skill and it's growth, no matter how much he tried, he had reach his limit, he couldn't fit anymore chakra or air inside his lungs, that was when Tsumeato-sensei gave a lecture on elemental affinities, and some research guaranteed him that the Uchiha were known for their high fire affinity, so he decided to find a jutsu that matched him, with a henge he bought one of those pieces of paper that showed your type of chakra, but when he used it, nothing happened, so he had asked the first friend he met to try it, and the paper crumbled at Ino's hand, showing her earth affinity, she was so excited that he decided to find a jutsu for the two of them to learn, after buying the scroll, with another henge, and learning it himself he though it to Ino, because he knew he would receive a hug, not one of her good morning or good bye hugs, one of the long ones, his favorite kind, the result was that they both learned the Doton: Gansetsukon (Earth Release: Rock Section Cane) though after some training Ino's was stronger, she worried that Naruto-kun would hate her, but was relieved when he just smiled and swore to catch up.

Finally, Kegawa-chan was even more interested in Naruto-kun, she couldn't spy at him at home because she wouldn't survive a minute in the the Forest of Death, and she never got a real answer out of him, whenever she probed him for information, which was often, "Why do you have claws and whiskers?" "Kekkei genkai" "Why are your eyes red?" Kekkei genkai" "What's your favorite food?" "Kekkei genkai" "What's your favorite color?" "Kekkei genkai", all she could do was observe and exchange information with Ino, they found out a couple of things, like the fact that he would henge into Hana-san's otouto so they could eat at most restaurants in town, it seemed he really liked trying new foods, they never saw him order anything twice, or the fact that he lived in the Forest of Death, it took her a couple of tries to be able to tail Naruto-kun home, he was too damn fast! Still, the more she learned the more interesting he became, soon she started wondering about what kind of girl he liked, if he liked long hair, but one thing was certain, he liked strong people. So even if her mother was no longer there to teach her, and her father was a civilian, she dug out her mother's scrolls and started working on mastering every jutsu inside.

* * *

><p>A month after their forth year began, Kurama was dashing around the biggest tiger he has ever seen, the thing was easily twice a regular Forest of Death tiger, who was easily twice as big as a regular one, every time he dashed he would slash the beast with his chakra infused claws, they were about as hard as wood, but they were sharp, they wouldn't stand a kunai, but where more then enough for flesh, soon enough the beast was tired and bloody, so, taking a few steps back, he ran through the seals and 'Katon: Gokakyu no Jutsu!' burning the tiger's flesh, fat and muscle, after the animal was dead he climbed a tree and took off, jumping from branch to branch he felt two chakra sources approaching fast, one was small, a third of the larger one, but the other was certainly a genin. He ran as fast as he could, but it wasn't enough, they were closing in, so he stopped, he was standing on a branch linked to a tree that was right in the middle of a swamp, the dangers it held? Only he knew.<p>

"There you are, freak!" yelled a blur, trying to swipe at him, Kurama dodge and both landed on different branches, a small black dog standing next to his attacker "I swore to my mother that when I became a shinobi I would avenge her! Well, now you're going to pay, you damned fox!"

Kurama said nothing, the genin was clearly an Inuzuka, the red triangles, the grey vest and, of course, the dog, he might not remember but he probably did kill the his mother. But that was another him, he would not pay for that crime. Crouching low he took his stance, help would not come and he could not out-run the Inuzuka, he had to think of something.

"Nothing, huh! To scared to talk or don't you feel any guilt?" demanded the boy "Enough, if you won't talk then I'll just kill you!" he crouched as well and the dog jumped on his back.

"Shikyaku no Jutsu! (Four Legs Technique!) Jujin Bunshin! (Beast Human Clone!)" Kurama's eyes widened when the boy's feature became even more wild, with larger fangs and longer claws, and the dog on his back turned into a copy of him, both smirked. "Gatsuga! (Fang Passing Fang)"

That was the Kyuubi's only warning as his two opponents turned into spinning blurs and shot towards him, he dodge, but it was close, for a full minute he could do nothing but dodge, then the technique became a little slower, 'It's now or never!' he turned to see one of the drills behind him, he ran through the seals 'Katon: Gokakyu no Jutsu!' spitting fire his eyes only widened more as the drill dove through the flames, he tried to dodge but was hit in the hand, several cuts appeared in his left wrist and hand 'No more seals'.

"Katon? That was very impressive, freak... What the hell!" Kurama didn't understand what was going on, but a sudden burst of adrenaline ran through him, he could feel his fangs growing, as were his claws and he sprouted.. A grey... tail? And dog, no, wolf ears?" he didn't understand, but he notice one thing, his chakra was like an Inuzuka's, it was wild, difficult to control, he smirked 'Dangerous'.

* * *

><p>'Shit! Shit! Shit! Shit! Shit! Shit! SHIT!' Hana was not in the best of moods, her mother asked her to bring one of her cousins for his surprise two month evaluation as genin, she found out he had left the compound and her mother ordered her to track him down. And when she did, she reached the fence of the Forest of Death, she followed his scent but couldn't run as fast as she wanted too, the brothers where now too big for her to carry, but weren't as fast as she was, so she had to slow down. All the time she cursed herself for not noticing how much hate Dai must have been caring, she knew his parents died in the Kyuubi attack, eleven years ago, leaving him as a orphan when he was just one, she wished she could give him the benefit of doubt but there was no other reason for him to be in the forest, and if he touched a single hair on her Naruto-kun she would rip him to shreds! She was getting closer, she could smell them... But Naruto-kun's scent was difference, it was closer to her's then usual, it was still him but...<p>

* * *

><p>It wasn't hard to figure out how the jutsu worked, focus your chakra on your nose, release it over your skin in a spiral fashion and when it reached your feet, let it explode! He had no clue how long he would be able to hold it, it would take a lot of concentration to hold it while spinning like that, so he waited until one of the drills was eight seconds always from him, 'Gatsuga!', he shot forward, both moving they would clash in half the time, 1 second, all is good. 2 seconds, getting dizzy. 3 seconds, lost control, he was sent flying but was able to grab a tree. He didn't like how he lost control but he saw one thing clearly, his spin was stronger. And the other drill was coming towards him.<p>

* * *

><p>Hana arrived in the swamp and saw a Gatsuga a couple of seconds from hitting Naruto-kun! She was about to scream when... Naruto-kun used Gatsuga, a huge Gatsuga, twice the size of Dai's, then they hit, in a few seconds Naruto-kun continued forward like Dai was never there, but the older boy fell into the swamp, his arms and torso were full of cuts, deep cuts, she looked at the blond and he was smiling, it wasn't a "I love your pain" smile, it was an Inuzuka smile, an adrenaline induced, blood pumping smile. Then it disappeared, he looked sad, she looked down at Dai and saw him moving, he would continue to fight, his partner was already pulling him from the swamp when a huge mouth swallowed them both, the giant snake disappeared as fast as it appeared, and in one second Hana was growling in front of her otouto, that THING was NOT getting even CLOSE to HER Naruto-kun!<p>

"Inu-nee-chan?" he hadn't noticed her approach, he had been so focused on his enemy "I'm sorry..." did she hate him now? He killed someone from her clan.

"You did nothing wrong Naruto-kun, you just defended yourself, I'm just sorry it had to be this way." she then hugged him and used Shunshin to get away from there.

When they reappeared, Kurama told her they where close to his home, she nodded and followed. When they arrived on a giant hollow tree she was struck with sadness, this was were Naruto-kun lived? Once inside the place was surprisingly nice, the wood was polished, he had an actual futon and two chest, he opened one, found a mirror inside, looked at his reflection and turned to her with a sad smile "Now I really do look like a dog, Inu-nee-chan."

She hugged him, hard, she did it a lot but he never complained "Naruto-kun, I think I know how this happened... Do you know about the time the Kyuubi no Yoko attacked this village?" she asked, she didn't want to tell him, but she couldn't let him go through this without knowing.

"I know everything, Inu-nee-chan, Neko-aniki already explained it to me..." she was relieved to say the least, she didn't think she would be able to take the look of pain when he heard the news 'Thanks, Itachi-san' "But... There's something you don't know... Please remember that this is no more my choice then what you were about to tell me. And please, if you don't want to be my nee-chan anymore don't say anything, just walk away..."

"Naruto-kun, there's nothing that would make me want to leave you." she hugged him harder, and he took it, thinking this might be the last time she hugged him.

"My... My name is not Naruto... My name is Kurama... I... I am the Kyuubi no Yoko." his eyes on his feet.

"No! Naruto-kun! You don't understand, you are what we call a Jinchuriki! You are just the Kyuubi's jailer! You're..." but he cut in.

"No. The Yondaime messed up the seal, I am not the jailer, nor the prison, I am the Kyuubi no Yoko. But I did not attack Konoha."

Hana was... Panicking, her mother had asked her to report on Naruto-kun, she said there where too many differences between him and his mother, the previous host, his eyes, the fox features where too pronounced... No, no, no, no! There had to be something! Naruto-kun couldn't be the demon, there had to be a way out... "Wait, what do you mean when said you didn't attack Konoha? You said you were the Kyuubi..." was she... crying?

"When the Yondaime locked me in this body he... Killed me... I don't have any memories that are not from this body... Inu-nee-chan..." he said her nickname quietly, as if asking if he could still call her that "I am still me, I don't want you to hate me, not you, not Neko-aniki, I can take anyone else hating me, just not one of you!"

She just hugged him even harder, she had already decided, he was Naruto-kun, no matter what his name was, or what he was, he was still her Naruto-kun and she was still his Inu-nee-chan. It scared her how easily she accepted it, but it didn't change her mind, she would protect and take care of... Kurama-kun. Nothing would ever change that.


	6. Chapter 6

Kyuubi no Yoko: The Second

Chapter 6: Team 4

AN: I don't think I have anything to say...

Nevertheless, disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of it's original characters. Anything other then that can be used without asking for permission, but I would like if you let people know where you got the idea.

Well, shall we?

Utatane Koharu, one of the elder members of Konoha's council couldn't help but smirk as she walked toward the emergency council meeting, the matter to be discussed was the murder of Inuzuka Dai at the hands of the demon fox. Finally she and her allies would have the support of one of the major clans in their quest for the monster's execution. When she entered the chamber she noticed that her mood was shared by all of the civilian council, except for Danzo, who declared himself unwell, and would not be making an appearance, among the shinobi side of the council all the clan heads showed themselves as indifferent, but most of them were just masking their feelings, except for Inuzuka Tsume, she was angry, very angry and she was showing it.

Once the Hokage arrived, before he couldn't even speak Tsume stood up, walked to the middle of the room and, when Koharu prepared herself to hear the demands of the demon's immediate execution, she bowed low.

"Hokage-sama, please allow me to formally apologize for the actions taken by a former member of my clan against one of the future shinobi of Konohagakure. If Dai was still alive he would have been punished in the full extent of the Inuzuka law and then delivered to your authority to face the justice of Konoha, however he is not, so the most I can offer is monetary compensation to the young Uzumaki and a guarantee that NO Inuzuka will ever try something like that, ever again, and I will make sure they are aware of the consequences should they disobey." the expressions on the civilian side of the council went from wide eyes to slacked jaws, the shinobi remained impassive, they had always known what was going to happen.

"But! Tsume-san! The beast murdered a member of your clan! Surely you don't plan to let him walk away unpunished?" shrieked Haruno Kimiko, a slightly over-weighted woman with bright pink hair.

"I would never let the murder of a member of my clan slide, but no such thing has happened in some time" growled Tsume, before returning her attention to the Hokage.

"Agreed, we have an eye witness that confirms that Naruto acted in self defense and didn't even deliver a death blow, not to mention the presence of the young Inuzuka in the area where Naruto... Spends most of his time. Tsume-san we can discuss the amount for the compensation at a later date, there is not need to do so now" declared Sarutobi. "Is there anything else? Or was this the only topic for the meeting?"

"I believe it was, Hokage-sama, but if you would allow I would like to know what exactly happened in the training ground 44. How was a academy student capable of defeating a shinobi, even if just a genin?" inquired Hyuga Hiashi.

"From the report of our eye witness, miss Inuzuka Hana, Naruto was able to survive the Gatsuga technique until Dai gave him an opening, with one strike the boy was sent into the marsh bellow them and both he and his partner, that jumped in to save the boy, where swallowed by a giant serpent, which are uncommon in the swamps of the Forest of Death, I believe that was Naruto's intention" Sarutobi was not pleased with this events but he couldn't help but be proud of Minato's son.

"He knew he couldn't take the genin in a fair fight, so he used the terrain and his opponents unfamiliarity with it to his advantage." mussed Hiashi "I think he has potential as a shinobi, would you considering offering him to a jonin as a personal apprentice?"

"He has already been requested, in fact" this gathered everyone's attention " By Hatake Kakashi, a few months ago..."

"But Hokage-sama!" interrupted Homura Mitokado, a civilian now, but a former teammate of Sarutobi's "Hatake must teach the Uchiha heir on how to awaken and use the Sharingan!"

"I know, Homura, we can't afford to have Sasuke master his kekkei genkai on his own, it would take too long and make him an easy target until he succeeded, and since they are both on the top of the school's ranks we won't be able to put them in the same team, this is also true for the Nara prodigy, so I had to deny Hatake's request but I believe I have found him a good teacher, though that is all I will say in the matter. Now, is there anything else?" no one said anything "Then this meeting is over, you are all dismissed."

The only shinobi that didn't leave in a good mood where the Inuzuka and Nara clan heads, the first for obvious reasons the second 'Troublesome boy, no one had ever said 'Nara' and 'prodigy' in the same sentence before, you're drawing too much attention to yourself, that's not how a strategist to act...'

* * *

><p><p>

It was the last day of school, the rookie of the year was about to be announced, and after that the team placements, everyone expected a happy but slightly tearful Iruka to enter the class, when a frowning and cursing one did, the students couldn't help but question.

"Is everything ok, Iruka-sensei?" asked some girl in the front row.

"Not really, Eri-kun, you see the council decided they know better then me which one of my students is the best, so they will be the one's declaring the Rookie of the Year." he finished, looking at the door, "Please come in Homura-san and Utatane-san."

The two council man did, while glaring daggers at Iruka, who just took his seat at the teachers desk and waited.

"This year there was some competition for the tittle of top graduate but we are sure we picked the best student, we have analyzed your grades since the beginning of your first year and the one with the highest total score is, obviously: Uchiha Sasuke!" Homura declared to two smiles, Sasuke's and Sakura's, three frowns, Iruka's, Kurama's and Shikamaru's, and twenty six glares, followed by a lot of yelling.

"There's no way in hell Naruto-kun didn't win!" a girl's voice.

"Please, Shikamaru-san was always on the lead!" a boy, and many more followed suit.

"Iruka! Control your class!" demanded Koharu.

"I'm sorry Utatane-san, but you told me not to interfere until you were done, and you still haven't given Sasuke his special hitai-ate" he said grinning.

"Sasuke-kun!" Koharu tried to yell over the student's voices "Come grab your hitai-ate! Quickly"

But the Uchiha took his time, getting up slowly and walking deliberately slow 'My class is full of idiots! How dare they think those two weaklings could even begin to compare to me! An Uchiha, and elite! One is the heir to a clan that won't move until their women tell them to! And the other is some clan less freak that lives in the woods!' when he grabbed the hitai-ate Iruka moved to calm the class down with his genjutsu. When he finally did...

"So what now, freak? I have proof that I am the best! Not that I needed any, I am an Uchiha after all." the grin plastered on Sasuke's face had a little crazy at the edges.

"Congratulations, Fundo" smirked Kurama "but you do realize that your 'proof' still doesn't make you fast enough to hit me, right?"

By the time Sasuke moved, Iruka was already grabbing him (He is a chunin) "Sasuke, you are both Konoha shinobi now, if you attack him because of a taunt you won't get detention, you will be sent to jail."

"Let go of me!" Sasuke ordered "Now!"

"Yes Iruka, put him down." Homura was beside them.

"Yes, sir, but if he tries to attack anyone else I'll just grab him again." he let the Uchiha go, the boy didn't say anything, just stormed to his seat.

That's when Mizuki entered the class with a tray full of hitai-ate, but unlike Sasuke's in which the leaf was red, theirs was black. While he distributed them Iruka approached Shikamaru and the Kyuubi "Do you guys want to know who's the real rookie of the year?"

They looked at each other, at Iruka and shook their heads "Nah" answered Naruto "The real thing starts now, I don't want to go out there with a big head thinking I'm some kind of god"

"Well then, you have nothing to worry about because I won" teased Heihou.

"Maybe, shame it doesn't matter" smirked Kurama.

"Yeah, I guess, thanks anyway Iruka-sensei" said Shikamaru turning to Iruka again. The sensei just smiled and walked away.

Heihou wore his hitai-ate on his arm, while Manako-chan wore her's like belt. Kegawa-chan choose to wear her's like a necklace, while Kurama just hid his in his pocket, causing Heihou to raise an eyebrow but he was the only one to notice.

After everyone had a hitai-ate "Now I'll be announcing the teams, they will be made up from three genin and one jonin sensei, Team 1..." Kurama was worried, he knew his jonin would probably dislike him so he was hoping to have at least one friend on the team, and Heihou was out, their scores were the same, if they where put together balance between the teams was impossible, so he hoped for Manako-chan or Kegawa-chan, and if he couldn't have them he could do with Niku-kun.

"Team 4: Yamanaka Ino, Oonishi Noriko and Uzumaki Naruto." announced a smiling Iruka to look up and see a grinning blond been tackled by another blond and a brunette, if he boy was happy now, wait until he said the last name "Jonin sensei will be Inuzuka Hana." it looked like the boy had sucked the happiness from the girls, his grin was almost splitting his face in two but the girls looked dejected, they had met Hana a few weeks into this year, and all the confidence Ino had as Naruto-kun's number one was blown away in a minute, Hana was older, smart, beautiful, funny, she would hug Naruto-kun every few minutes and her breasts were at D and now she was a jonin, how are they supposed to compete with her? His smile wasn't really helping either.

After a while "Team 7: Uchiha Sasuke, Haruno Sakura and Aburame Shino, jonin sensei will be Hatake Kakashi. Team 8: Akimichi Choji, Shikamaru Nara and Hyuga Hinata, jonin sensei will be Yuhi Kurenai. Team 9 is still active..." but Kurama tuned him out, turning to Heihou.

"Well, best of luck, Heihou! Hope you don't die!" he smiled offering his hand.

"You too Arai, if you die the Uchiha will start locking at me for a rival, and he is just too troublesome..." but Shikamaru was also smiling as he shook Kurama's hand.

"You have one hour for lunch, get to know your team and come here to meet your new sensei. Best of luck to you all and know that is was a pleasure teaching this class, I hope you all turn into fine shinobi and kunochi, know that from this day forward I am no longer your teacher, from this day forward we are fellow Konoha shinobi." Iruka waved his good bye with a smile and some tears.

Kurama lead his team to a tree, since they always ate in it's shade, he was carrying only an apple, but he knew he would get plenty to eat. When he sat down he was offered two bentos.

"I made this for you, Naruto-kun!" Ino half smiled at him, half glared at Noriko. It was a impressive sight.

"Mine's way better!" declared Kegawa-chan, from the smell her's had more meat in it, if he had to choose it would be hers but...

"But I'm so hungry... Can't I eat both?" pouted the Kyuubi.

"Of course you can, Naruto-kun!" both girls agreed instantly, piece of cake.

"Well, do you have enough room for mine?" came a voice from the tree, they looked up to see Hana standing on the trunk.

"How can you..." began Kurama, just to be cut off.

"Don't worry, I'll teach you guys soon enough" she said smiling "I couldn't wait to see my team, specially with my Naruto-kun in it, so I came to have lunch, and I brought you a bento, do you want it Naruto-kun?"

The blond just smiled, got his hug and his bento and began to eat.

"Say..." started Ino "Aren't you a little young to be a jonin sensei, Hana... Sensei?"

"Yeah, but I had this deal with Hokage-sama, so things worked out" she grinned, turning to Naruto she saw him eating Noriko's bento, Ino's was already empty and her's being saved for last.

"What kind of deal, sensei?" asked Noriko, always curious.

"Well, I don't know if I should tell... Meh, who cares" she decided "When I first met Naruto-kun I asked Hokage-sama if, if I managed to become a jonin before Naruto-kun finished the academy, I could be his sensei."

"So you went from genin to jonin in four years, just to train me?" Kurama was already done eating.

"Yup, I couldn't trust my Naruto-kun to anyone else" she said, hugging him. "Now, I should start this with a team introduction, but we all know each other. So jut follow me, so I can give you guys the genin test." that's when she took off running.

"There's another test?" being on this team was her best chance to learn about Naruto-kun, she wasn't going to fail.

"Yup, and if you fail you guys have to go back to the academy" she grinned, looked back and was meet with two scared and one... Bored look?

"Big deal, if we fail a real mission we die." stated Kurama as a matter of fact.

"Yup, so there's really nothing to worry about." 'except I might not be able to teach Naruto-kun...' Hana was seriously considering just pretending she tested them.

They arrived at an almost deserted training ground, except for three figures, they were greeted by the Haimaru Brothers. "Ok, the rules are simple, three of you, three dogs, grab one and bring him here! And hurry up, you have three hours.".

As soon as she was done Kurama dashed for the third brother, leaving Manako-chan and Kegawa-chan to eat his dust, but the mutt was too fast, Kurama could jump, run, roll, tackle and beg but the thing wouldn't stop, soon enough two hours had passed, he had gone for the third in hope of taunting him to stay and fight, but the mutt was too smart, he wouldn't fall for traps either... What to do? What to do? That's when he noticed Kegawa-chan running after the first, to his right 'Wait, what if we catch them all, by ganging up on them, one at a time' making his decision he abandoned his hunt for the third and called Manako-chan and Kegawa-chan. "Girls, I don't think we'll be able to catch any of them without help, I say we work together and catch them one by one. Ok?"

"Please, I'm almost out of chakra and not any closer to that thing." Noriko was not having fun.

"I'll always help you, Naruto-kun!" Ino wasn't very tired, maybe because out of her jutsu the only one useful for a moving target is her elemental affinity.

"Good, here's the plan..."

"Hey! Get back here and fight, mutt! You're nothing but a coward!" the third brother knew he was just being batted, but it was getting harder and harder to swallow the insults, he looked behind him, surprised to see the brow haired girl, and not Kurama, he stooped for a second, before remembering the competition and restart running, in a couple of seconds Kurama was in front of him, running through the seals 'Katon: Gokakyu no Jutsu' a huge ball of fire exploded in the dogs path, he turned left, "Doton: Gansetsukon" and four staffs made of rock pierced the ground before him, turning back he ran to what was his right when the fire ball appeared "Hea Hebi!" Kegawa-chan's hair grew even more, slithered toward the target and wrapped itself around the first brother.

"Naruto-kun, how can you use Sasuke-teme's jutsu?" asked Noriko as if a dog was not struggling to get free from her hair.

"Hard work, now, we need to keep him still while capture the other brothers" Kurama was sweating, and the two girls were panting.

"Why?" asked Ino "We already have one."

"Geez, Yamanaka, we each need one dog to pass." the third brother had given up, besides, this place was soft and warm.

"No we don't, Oonishi, Hana-sensei said 'grab one and bring him here' not grab one each" then the other two dogs appeared by Shunshin, along with their partner.

"She's right, I didn't expect any of you to catch them alone. By the way, the three hour are up." she said grinning.

"Oh... Then I guess your the only one that passed Kegawa-chan, congratulations." dammit! He really wanted to be on this team.

"Yeah... We will do better next time." 'at least I will go back with Naruto-kun'

"No way! I won't stay here alone" she said , freeing the third brother. "I'll go with you!"

"Good thing you don't have to." Hana's grin was even wider "This test is just meant to show you that there's a lot you can't do on your own, and most of those things you can only do, if you work together! Since you did, you all pass the test, congratulations, genins of Konohagakure!"

Before she was done Kurama was already being tackled to the ground and then, pinned down by his teammates.

"So when do we start training?" asked Kurama, with fire in his eyes, despite his position.

"Tomorrow, otouto. And the day after, we start doing missions. So go home and rest up, 'cause I'll be working you all to the bone from tomorrow onwards." she hugged Kurama good bye and used Shunshin to get to the Hokage's office, to give her report.


	7. Chapter 7

Kyuubi no Yoko: The Second

Chapter 7: The life of a genin

AN: To you the truth I was not pleased with the last chapter, I always think the genin test is incredibly boring, especially since we know exactly what will happen, I tried to mix things up a bit, avoiding the god-dammed bell test, but I'll have to do better for the rest of the fic. Oh yeah, a couple of things:

So far most people that have given their opinion on Hana, have asked for her to be added to the harem. So that's what I'm planning.

I'm not sure what I'll do with Hinata, but I'll not pair her with Kurama, wouldn't make any sense with his personality.

And as per daveoo mangeoo's request, nicknames at the beginning.

Nicknames:

Neko-aniki = Uchiha Itachi

Inu-nee-chan = Inuzuka Hana

Manako-chan = Yamanaka Ino

Heihou = Nara Shikamaru

Kegawa-chan = Oonishi Noriko

Fundo = Uchiha Sasuke

Niku-kun = Akimichi Choji

Mugon-san = Hyuga Hinata

Tsumeato-sensei = Umino Iruka

Subaku-san = Aburame Shino

Nevertheless, disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of it's original characters. Anything other then that can be used without asking for permission, but I would like if you let people know where you got the idea.

Well, shall we?

"This is Princess, in position, west of target" called the radio.

"This is The Inquisitor, in position, east of target" dammit, she wanted to call in before Ino.

"Good, this alpha, I want you to move in from the sides, send him north!" came the orders.

"Copy that!" answered the girls in unison.

And out of the trees jumped two young girls, a blonde and brunette, from either sides of the target, Ino maneuvered a bit to make the south opening smaller then the north. And sure enough Tora bolted right where they wanted him to.

"This is demons brat, closing from the north, moving in for the kill." almost as soon as he said that.

"STOP CALLING YOURSELF THAT!" no one in his team shared his sense of humor...

Tora was worried, he had only seen two humans chasing him, there were always three, must be some kind of ambush, he decided to change directions when a young human male dropped in front of him, that human was dangerous! Too dangerous! He couldn't move, he tried to play dead, his heart was racing.

"Naruto-kun! Cut it out, you'll give him a heart attack!" Hana didn't like any cats, especially this one, but they needed the little monster alive.

Kurama just walked calmly towards Tora and picked him up without any complains, he had unleashed so much killing intent the damn thing went catatonic. 'Huh, doubt you'll be trying to run for a while' the Kyuubi was smirking, it had caught this cat three times now, enough was enough, if he had to do it again he was going to kill the little demon.

* * *

><p>There's a first time for everything, whenever Tora was returned to the Fire Daimyo's wife, he would try to get away while being crushed by her hugs, but this time, the cat was hugging her back, like what ever was out there was more dangerous then the former bane of it's existence.<p>

"Ohhh, I missed you too Tora-kun! Come on, let's go home!" she left without saying a word to Team 4, not that they cared, but that was just rude.

"Well, congratulations on your successful mission. Will you be taking another one today, Hana-san?" asked the chunin that was handing out missions today.

"Nah, we'll get some more training done, I think that soon enough they'll be ready for a C rank!" she answered grinning. Before they could walk away, Team 7 walked in.

"Team 7, Hatake Kakashi, reporting a mission successfully completed." he then turned to Hana "Ah, Hana-kun, how is your team doing?"

"Well enough, Kakashi-sempai." she answered politely "We're off to do some training now"

"Good, it's important to balance training and missions so that they gain strength as well as experience." Kakashi gave her a smile, from behind his mask "Why don't we do some inter teams sparring? It's best that they fight different opponents then the one's they are use to."

"Ok, when can we schedule it?" Naruto-kun always held back against the girls, she wanted to see him go all out.

"How about..." He mussed, with his hand on his chin "Right now?"

"Sounds good! Let's kick Kakashi-sempai's team's ass!" Team 4 grinned, and Team 7 frowned, except for Shino, he just waited.

* * *

><p>"Ok." Began Kakashi, from behind his little orange book "We'll have tree one-on-one spars with the losing team's sensei treating everyone to dinner, the rules are: No rules, do whatever you want and we'll stop when someone has won. Don't bother arguing, if we had to stop the fight, you lost. Now, who want's to go first?"<p>

"I do, and I want to fight the second place." declared Sasuke, pointing at Naruto, receiving three low growls from the boys teammates and sensei, and three loud growls from the Haimaru Brothers.

"Sounds fun, can we Inu-nee-chan?" Kurama turned to Hana, who lost her frown immediately.

"Sure, otouto! Go kick his ass!" she gave him a thumb up "Say Kakashi-sempai, I know my students better then you, and you know yours better then me, so what say I save mine if he needs and you take care of yours?"

"Ok." Kakashi giggled from behind his book.

Sasuke and Kurama stood in front of each other, the Uchiha took his stance and Kurama just ready himself, but didn't move. "Begin!" declared Hana, out of the corner of her eye, she saw Kakashi putting his book away.

The Uchiha wasted no time, charging at the Kyuubi and trying a flying kick, Kurama side steeped, jumped a couple inches, turned his body sideways and spun, landing an elbow at Sasuke's ribs, sending the boy back to the ground. He jumped again as the Uchiha tried to sweep his legs, and back flipped away. When he did, the Uchiha saw his chance, running through the hand seals, he took a deep breath and yelled: "Katon! Gokakyu no Jutsu!" spitting a massive fireball, easily twice the size the first one he showed Kurama.

The Kyuubi just rolled out of the way, and did something that shocked everyone but Hana. He shoved his hand into the fire and it was covered in flames in a second, after another, Kurama was completely covered in flames, Kakashi was about to move in, when Hana put a hand on his shoulder "You can't move yet Kakashi-sempai, your students life is still not in danger" she said smirking.

'What is she talking about, Naruto is going to...' that's when he saw, the flames where gone but Naruto was... Different, first off, he no longer had his fangs, claws or whiskers, his red eyes and the roots of his hair where now orange, both seemed to move, like they where on fire. Naruto's mouth was open so you could see a glow coming from it, like there was a fire lit in his throat, and to add to that impression, every time he released a breath, it came out as smoke. Finally, he had a single tail, made completely of fire.

"What the hell is that?" demanded Sasuke.

Kurama just shrugged "Kekkei Genkai... Now, why don't we try that jutsu again, Fundo?" he smirked.

Sasuke complied, making the seals, and taking a deep breath, he yelled "Katon! Gokakyu no Jutsu!", unleashing another fireball, the same size as the first

Kurama's smile grew wider, making single seal, the tiger, 'Katon! Gokakyu no Jutsu!', he spit another fireball, easily larger then Sasuke's, the battle of jutsu lasted a few seconds, and Kurama's won. All the Uchiha could do was stare, wide eyes as his favorite jutsu moved to obliterate him.

By the time the fire hit the ground Kakashi had already gotten the Uchiha out of the way, he turned to Hana "What the hell was that?"

She answered "You know what it was, his Kekkei Genkai." her tone serious.

"He can stole my jutsu!" growled Sasuke.

"You do realize your clan got famous because of the Sharingan, right teme?" came Noriko's voice.

"Shut up, you bitch! He'll be punished for this! I'll get the council to lock you up and trow away the key." smirked Sasuke.

"You're an idiot Fundo, the Gokakyu is not a clan exclusive jutsu, sure it got famous because of the Uchiha, but they didn't invent it." Kurama stated, clapping his hand as if praying, and going back to his original form. "Besides, I learned it from an Uchiha."

"Bull shit!" yelled Sasuke "No Uchiha would teach a clan less orphan one of OUR techniques!"

"Well, Neko-aniki was never really proud of being an Uchiha, was he?" he smiled at the thought of his brother. And that was enough to send Sasuke over the edge, but when he tried to move, Kakashi knocked him out with a chop to the back of the neck.

"Naruto-kun, please don't mention Itachi when talking to Sasuke, you know how he gets" said Kakashi shaking his head "Well, why don't we have a fan girl clash? Yamanaka versus Haruno?" he asked with a smile, ignoring his first student on the floor.

"But Kakashi-sensei! Sasuke-kun needs to go to the hospital!" Sakura cried.

"Well, I'll take him there if you beat her, but if I have to pay for dinner then it will take him a loooooong time to get there." he nodded "Yup, you know how easily I get lost..."

In clear panic she stood in front of Ino and took a basic taijutsu stance. 'Huh, time to show off to Naruto-kun' thought Ino.

She performed the hand seals and yelled "Doton: Gansetsukon!" creating two staffs out of stone, she grabbed one and rushed Sakura, she was, however, not very skilled at using a staff so the pink haired girl was able to dodge quite easily, when she moved to attack however, she pulled her fist all the way back and got hit in the forehead by the other staff. "Out of sight, out of mind huh, Sakura?" Ino stood smirking.

"Your students are very skilled, Hana-kun." said Kakashi, who was once again hidden behind his book "Well, it's all up to you Shino, please avenge your comrades."

"Yes, sensei" answered the boy hidden by an overcoat and sun glasses.

"Good luck, Kegawa-chan!" smiled Kurama.

"Why didn't you wish me luck, Naruto-kun?" pouted Ino.

"Because you didn't need it, there was no way you would lose to that" pointing at the unconscious pink haired girl "You're too strong. But Subaku-san (Hive-san) is strong too." he turned towards the last match. Ino didn't, she was just grinning like an idiot 'Naruto-kun says I'm strong!'.

Shino's bugs where forming clouds around Noriko, with a few hand seals, she yelled "Hea Hebi!" and her hair grew and reached for Shino, but he was too fast and his bugs where closing in, after a few more seals "Hari Jizo! (Needle Jizo!)" and she was hidden inside a cocoon made from her hair. The bugs however just landed and Kurama could fell them sucking Kegawa's chakra, before he could yell out to her, they heard a very low voice "Hari Haretsu! (Needle Explosion!)", and from everywhere in the cocoon chakra enhanced hair strands flew out, leaving no place to hide, but when Shino was hit he just exploded into bugs. "Mushi Bunshin no Jutsu. (Insect Clone Technique.)" called Shino from behind the cocoon, he couldn't attack her, but he didn't need to, in a few seconds her hair returned to normal and she fell down, Kurama went and picked her up, bridal style.

"I'll take her home. Inu-nee-chan, can we leave the dinner for another date?" both Ino and Hana were hard pressed to say no and tell him to just leave her there, or at least demand a ride as well. But Hana new better, and was faster, but that didn't mean she was going to let the girl be carried around like that by her Naruto-kun.

"Don't worry Naruto-kun, I'll take her home, it's my responsibility as a sensei. If you'll excuse me sempai." she bowed a little to Kakashi, who just nodded.

Both jonin picked up their unconscious students and used Shunshin to leave, when they were gone. "That was very impressive, Subaku-san, I'm also glad you didn't hurt her." Kurama said, but through clinched teeth.

"Don't worry, Naruto-san, she's perfectly fine, I even stopped my insects before she reached true chakra exhaustion. I wouldn't risk angering you. If you'll excuse me." he turned and left. Kurama was hard pressed not to rip his head off, but he knew he was overreacting, he just didn't know why, before he could figure it out, Ino grabbed hold of his arm and called his name, and although his worry for Kegawa-chan was still there, his anger was gone.

"Naruto-kun! I'm talking to you! Do you want to go eat somewhere?" Ino shook him awake.

"I would love that, Manako-chan! Uh! I want to try this new place that opened in the main street, they sell something called 'takoyaki'" he then used Henge to turn into Heihou. "Shall we?"

"Not with you looking like that! I want Naruto-kun!" she pouted.

"But if I don't Henge then they wouldn't service us." Kurama explained.

"But it's just a stand, so I can buy everything and meet you somewhere else" she countered, feeling a small victory when he dropped the Henge.

* * *

><p>"Silence! Inuzuka Hana, you will explain this new found 'ability' of Naruto. As best as you can." declared Sarutobi, succeeding in quieting the council, there weren't a lot of people pleased with this development, the previous host could barely use the Kyuubi's chakra now this boy was sprouting tails.<p>

"Very well." began Hana "When Naruto-kun comes into contact with a jutsu, he can copy the type of chakra in the jutsu, like when he touched the Gokakyu jutsu his elemental affinity became fire, after copying a chakra type he can call on it at any time. I don't know if there are limits to the number of chakra types he can copy, but so far he can call upon Katon and Doton, this... Ability however, does not allow him to copy a jutsu, like the Uchiha accused him, it works just like a normal elemental affinity, making jutsu of his 'element' stronger."

"Why didn't you inform the council when you first learned of this?" inquired the Hokage.

"Because secrecy is the strongest weapon of a shinobi, and Naruto-kun has enough enemies who are dangerous without me taking this weapon away from him." she never broke eye contact, it was not an excuse, it was the truth and she would do it again.

"Be that as it may, this situation is not normal, from now on, you will report on any developments on this ability and any similar ones. Is that understood?" his room left no room for any answer that wasn't...

"Yes, sir" but lying is easy.

"I have another concern regarding the... Uzumaki boy, Hokage-sama" began Koharu.

"He defeated the Uchiha in a supervised sparring match, he will not be punished, anything else?" asked the Hokage.

"That wasn't the problem I wanted to talk about" that got his attention "I have ran into Team 4 the other day, when they were going to receive a mission and I noticed something that might be a problem in the future. The... Boy does not where his hitai-ate."

Everyone was a little surprised at this "Hana, what is the meaning of this?" demanded Tsume.

"He thinks it's... Stupid for a shinobi to wear a symbol of his village, he feels that it's like warning his enemies where to retaliate." that's what he told her, but she knew it was a lie. "He's just a genin, let him rebel, he'll give up soon enough." she pleaded.

To everyone's surprise, Sarutobi answered "Very well. I don't think he is exactly pleased with the village, as a whole, at the moment. Forcing him to comply to something that won't get in the way, for now, isn't the best way to gain his loyalty." most shinobi agreed to this, but the civilian council was ready to demand more "You are all dismissed, this meeting is over, and this topic closed, everything regarding Naruto and his new found abilities is now an S-Rank secret. A leak of such a secret without permission from me, him or his sensei will be punished with execution."


	8. Chapter 8

Kyuubi no Yoko: The Second

Chapter 8: Team Senpai

AN: Quick question, did I go too fast in this chapter? Would I have been better for me to break it down into two? Please let me know, PM, review, whatever.

Nicknames:

Neko-aniki = Uchiha Itachi

Inu-nee-chan = Inuzuka Hana

Manako-chan = Yamanaka Ino

Heihou = Nara Shikamaru

Kegawa-chan = Oonishi Noriko

Fundo = Uchiha Sasuke

Niku-kun = Akimichi Choji

Mugon-san = Hyuga Hinata

Tsumeato-sensei = Umino Iruka

Subaku-san = Aburame Shino

Kemuri-jii-san = Hiruzen Sarutobi

Bunshin-senpai = Rock Lee

Jiman-senpai = Hyuga Neji

Nee-chan-senpai = Tenten

Dokuji-sensei = Maito Gai

Nevertheless, disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of it's original characters. Anything other then that can be used without asking for permission, but I would like if you let people know where you got the idea.

Well, shall we?

Kurama didn't like the Hokage's office, he still didn't trust the old man, but Inu-nee-chan guaranteed him that he wouldn't regret coming here today.

"Ah, Hana, I'm glad your team was the first to arrive, allow me to explain to your students why they have been summoned." Sarutobi turned to the genin of Team 4, smiling "I'm sure that by now you are very tired of doing D-rank missions, well I'm glad to say that, today, you don't have to. Team 4 has completed enough D-ranks to be allowed to take on a C-rank mission." someone knocked on the door.

And that's when he lost the smile "However, I am sure you have heard of the disaster that was Team 6's C-rank, they where asked to escort a bridge builder to the land of Wave, when they left Konoha they encountered rogue chunin and the mission quickly became, at least, a B-rank. My son, Asuma, decided his team fit to complete the mission. When they met Momochi Zubusa, the Demon of the Hidden Mist, however Asuma was unable to protect the bridge builder and two of his students. The only survivors where himself and Inuzuka Kiba." Hana just closed her eyes, she must have already know the details from her brother "I am telling you this so that you are all aware of the dangers that are involved in mission's outside of Konoha, although we need genin, such as you, to go on this type of missions, I have decided not to send you all alone. Please come in."

When the door opened a man with black hair cut as an upside bow, and dressed in a dark green jumpsuit, with orange leg warmers and a jonin vest, and his smaller version of him, minus the vest, walked in, they were followed by a girl with brown hair, combed in to two bums, and brown eyes, she wore a pink chinese dress and normal shinobi pants, and a white eyed boy with black hair, that wore a grey khaki shirt, dark brown shorts and blue shinobi sandals. "This is Team Gai, although I planned on sending two rookie teams for this mission, I have decided to send them as your... Senpai team, they are Neji Hyuga, Rock Lee and Tenten, their sensei is Maito Gai, please fell free to depend on them" he turned to the older team "I'll will trust you to help your respective kouhai should they run into any trouble, but please remember to let them squirm a bit, it's how shinobi grow. This are Uzumaki Naruto, Yamanaka Ino and Oonishi Noriko, and their sensei Inuzuka Hana."

"Yes Hokage-sama! Did you hear that Lee? While I make sure that Hana-chan learns and carries forth the flames of youth, you must do the same for your new kouhai! I know you can do it, Lee!" declared Gai with a thumbs up and hand on his waist.

"Do you really think I can spread the flames of youth, Gai-sensei?" his mini-me asked, on the verge of tears.

"Of course, Lee, my most youthful student! You can do anything you set your mind to!" tears on the eyes of the sensei as well.

"Gai-sensei!" Lee called.

"Lee!" the older man answered.

"Gai-sensei!" the boy jumped towards him.

"Lee!" Maito Gai caught his students in a tight hug and they cried in each others shoulder, and a setting sun was seen behind him. Everyone either frowned, grimaced or looked away. Except for Kurama, he... Smiled?

"Naruto-kun! How can you even look at that? It hurts! And why the hell are you smiling?" demanded Hana.

Kurama gave her a small smile "Reminds me of Neko-aniki."

This got her even more confused "How the hell can you look at those two and see Itachi?" and that name caught the attention of Team Gai.

"Bunshin-senpai (Clone-senpai) is doing his best to be like the one he respects, Dokuji-sensei (Original-sensei), just like one day, I'll be as strong as Neko-aniki." that's when Ino and Noriko noticed something about the clothes Naruto-kun started wearing around their second year: Black shinobi pants, with black opened toes sandals, a sleeveless grey vest over a sleeveless black shirt, he also had elbow long black gloves, he didn't have a mask, but he was almost wearing an ANBU outfit.

"Why do you want to look like the butcher of the Uchiha?" Neji had heard rumors that some kid was responsible for Itachi's insanity, there was no way that was true, but the rumors had to come from somewhere. Did this boy play a part on the Uchiha Massacre?

"Because Neko-aniki is the freest person I know." the blond answered with another small smile and closed eyes.

"Naruto-kun! Please don't try and follow the example of such a unyouthful model! Uchiha Itachi is a criminal! There are much better man that you can learn from, like Gai-sensei!" Lee struck a nice guy pose.

The temperature of the room dropped several degrees, Kurama's smile was still in place, but his red eyes where narrowed and hard. "Bunshin-senpai, please don't talk about things you don't understand."

"But..." began Lee, only to be stopped by a hand on his shoulder.

"Lee, he obviously knows the Uchiha better then us, so it's not our place to say how he should feel about the man. But I would be careful Naruto-kun, this village holds no love for Itachi." frowned Gai.

"It holds no love for me either." oddly enough, this smile seemed real, like it didn't bother him.

The Hokage cleared his throat, bringing everyone's attention to him "Now that introductions are out of the way, this is your mission: A festival has just ended in Konoha, and some of the performers have banded together to form a caravan, they have hired Konoha to supply them with protection from road bandits. Gai, Hana, are your teams ready for this mission?"

"Hai, Hokage-sama" answered the jonin in unison.

"Good, you will meet the caravan at the village's gates in two days, at noon. You are dismissed."

Both teams left, to prepare for the mission.

* * *

><p>Team Gai met up in one of the training grounds and headed for the gate, when they arrived the two of the genin where running up the village walls.<p>

"Oh, Naruto-kun! Why aren't you practicing with your teammates? Are your flames of youth low today?" asked Lee, while waving.

"Ah, good morning senpai, Dokuji-sensei." he lowered his head for a second "I didn't have any problems with this exercise so I would rather save my strength."

"But Naruto-kun! The more you train at something the better you'll become, so even the little trouble you had will soon go away!" Lee pumped his fist.

"You misunderstood Lee, he never had ANY problems with this exercise" explained Neji "Tell me Naruto, how many times did you fall from the tree?"

"None" his answered surprised even Neji, he was expecting few but zero?

"Now, Naru-chan, that exercise isn't easy at the beginning, there's no need to lie." Tenten fell from the tree when she first did that kind of training, she fell a lot.

"It's true, little girl" came Hana's irritated voice, Naruto-kun didn't let her call him like that in public, so why the hell didn't he correct the girl? "His chakra control is so good it's scary, he can already do water walking."

Lee and Tenten had their jaws on the floor, Gai eyes were wide but Neji just smirked 'It seems fate has given you a good hand, Naruto.'

"Uh, kunochi-san" a man called Hana, apparently assuming that she was in charge, since the other options where kids and... Gai... "We are ready to move."

"Then we will! Senpai, please let me see how you coordinate you team!" she smiled at Gai.

"Very well, Neji I want you in the front, keep your eyes open for any traps or ambushes. Lee, in the middle to the left of the line, Tenten, same thing, but to the right, I want you two to be ready to assist anywhere in the caravan at moments notice. I'll bring up the rear." he finished with a nice guy pose.

"Ok, Team 4 I want you to stick to your new senpai, learn as much as you can and get as much advice as possible and rotate every half hour." she ordered "Girls, take one of the brothers with each of you."

"Why doesn't Naruto get a dog?" asked Gai obviously puzzled.

"Because I want to train his nose, it's almost as good as an Inuzuka's!" she answered grinning.

* * *

><p>Kurama wanted to talk to Jiman-senpai (Pride-senpai) or Nee-chan-senpai (Sister-senpai) first but the girls had begged him to go to Bunshin-senpai first, they were scared of him. On his way there he passed one of the carts and smelled a very weak sent, but it was almost exactly like one he smelled every day. He asked Lee to wait a few minutes and entered the cart. "One of the shinobi wants me to read his fortune? It's funny how rare that is. A man can spit fire but he still thinks the future is unreadable."<p>

"I didn't know you could read my future, but I also don't care, I just came to confirm something." Kurama could see a woman sited behind a round table, some cards in front of her "You are a Kitsune, aren't you?" he could see her clearly, even in the dark of the cart, she wore priestess robes, white on most of it, but with some red circles marking her sleeves and skirt., she had red slitted eyes, claws, fangs and whisker marks, just like him, except her hair was red.

She reached for something behind her, grabbed it, but didn't move again "How do you know?"

"If you would lighten the incense you would noticed that I smell just like you, if a little more... Royal" he walked until he reached the table and raised his hand in front of the fox, she sniffed it and fell on her knees, bowing and touching her forehead to the floor.

"Forgive me, Kurama-sama, I never expected to meet one such as you this way." the Kyuubi was used to people doing things very different then bowing for him. It was nice change of pace.

"Don't worry, I am used to far worse welcomes." he waved it off, signaling her to get up "You can tell what happened to me, can't you?"

"I don't understand, Kurama-sama, what are you talking about?" she looked truly puzzled.

"I am stuck in a human." he answered grinning.

This only increased her confusion "So am I, my lord, is how we keep ourselves in this world. Kurama-sama, are you feeling well?"

"If we use human bodies as anchors, then how could I attack Konoha looking like a giant fox?" he muzzled, with a hand on his chin.

'Is this some kind of test? I don't understand.' though the woman, "You just shape shifted, my lord, don't you remember?"

She already knew something was up and she was still his best hope for answer so "Not really, no, when I was sealed in this body I lost all my memories, except my name and the knowledge of what I am. Can you help me with this problem?"

"Of course my lord!" well, she seemed eager "What would you like to know?"

"How can I shape shift?" that sounded fun.

"It's a Kitsune Jutsu (Fox Art), Kitsune Reikon (Fox Soul), and to return it's Jinteki Reikon (Human Soul)." if she helped Kurama-sama now, while he was weak, when he was back to his true power he would surely reward her! "I can't teach it to you here, the shinobi would fell our chakra and come check, but I can write you some scroll teaching you the techniques!" she was already doing that.

"Thank you, very much." he smiled "I'll be sure to remember this".

'Yesssssss!' "It's the least I can do, my lord, I'll include as many techniques as I can. How long do you have?" her red eyes never left the paper. "I'll include the Kitsune Houmon (Fox Visit) and..."

"Wait." he interrupted her "Kitsune Houmon, is that a Kuchiyose Jutsu?"

"Well, not exactly, it will allow you to call on foxes at any time, most of us would need a blood offering to use it, but no one would disobey you, Kurama-sama, so all you need to do is use it and call on the type of fox you want, big or small, strong or fast, if you know the name it makes every things easier."

"Sounds good, please be very specific when explaining the jutsu, I've had enough of figuring out everything." he frowned.

"Yes, Kurama-sama! And if you ever have any questions, just call for Mitsuko and I'll explain anything you need." she smiled and restarted writing.

* * *

><p>When Kurama left the cart, it was to see Manako-chan dragging her feet towards Bunshin-senpai, he just smiled and figured, since Kegawa-chan was walking away from the only female on Team Gai, he was supposed to go to Nee-chan-senpai.<p>

"Nee-chan-senpai!" he called, causing the girl to turn with a smile.

"Naru-chan! You do remember me!" she hugged him "I thought you would forget."

"The only person that would play with me? Even if she got scolded after that? Not likely." he grinned.

"But it's been so long! When I went back to visit you at the orphanage they said you were gone, but not who adopted you..." her eyes narrowed, like he was the one who kept the secret from her.

"No one adopted me, Nee-chan-senpai, I ran away, but I'm fine see! Genin, with a team that cares for me! Bright future ahead!" he amended the last part when she turned as red as a tomato, ready to scream her lungs out "I have my on place now, Neko-aniki helped me clean it, he thought me how to hunt, fish, everything I need to leave in the forest."

"So that's why you care so much for him... Wait! You live in a forest! Naru-chan! Why?" she looked closer to crying now, rather then screaming.

"Because it's safer then the village. And no, I'm not moving in with you, people would just start treating you badly and ruining your things." it looked like he had this argument before.

"Fine... But can I at least visit you?" she asked pouting.

"Nah, that forest is not a nice place to catch up, but we could keep in contact this time, Nee-chan-senpai." he smiled.

"You better, if you disappear again I'm hunting you down, Naru-chan!" she threatened, and asked something "Why are you calling 'Nee-chan-senpai'?"

"I call them as I see them." he answered simply.

"Naru-chan, time's up. Go talk to Neji!" came Hana's way too sweet voice.

"No it isn't, it's only been... Ok." he corrected himself when he saw her face.

"Who are you and why is he calling you 'Nee-chan'?" to her surprise the genin stood her ground, Kurama had that effect on woman, except Hinata.

"Because I am his Nee-chan." she glared back at the jonin.

* * *

><p>"Naruto. Isn't it a bit early for you to be here?" asked Neji, without turning to look at Kurama.<p>

"Yeah, but Inu-nee-chan told me to come anyway." he turned to Noriko "Kegawa-chan, your turn with Bunshin-senpai."

The girl grimaced, but moved without any verbal complains.

Kurama sniffed the air "I can't smell anything important, can you see anything Jiman-senpai?"

Neji frowned a bit a the name 'But it could be worse' "Nothing. I don't think this mission will be very eventful. Naruto, can you tell me what that is about?" he asked pointing behind him, where Kurama saw Inu-nee-chan, Nee-chan-senpai and Manako-chan all glaring at each other and arguing.

"Nope." he lied, and Neji knew, but it didn't really matter "Don't worry, it won't get in their way, they'll do their jobs".

"I hope so. I don't want to hear about how sensei is so 'youthful' for taking care of the problem." the Hyuga frowned.

"How much more of that can you take?" asked Kurama.

"If I had the strength I would have killed Gai already." not much more until he settled for Lee "How did you do in the academy?"

Where did that come from? "Well enough, I was considered for rookie of the year, but I lost in the end."

"There was someone more talented then someone that learned tree walking without falling once?" who the hell was that other kid? "How strong is he?"

"Not very, I've beat him in every spar so far." smiled Kurama.

"Then how did he win?" It didn't sound like a lie, but it didn't make sense.

"They never really explained, the two of us and Heihou were tied and then the elder members of the council walked in and told us he won. Good times." it didn't really seem to bother him.

"You think they cheated for him?" receiving a nod, he continued "But why?"

"Because he is the last Uchiha loyal to Konoha" they could hear Kegawa-chan, she had apparently joined the argument.

"Pathetic." Neji spitted out "Why is your chakra red?"

Kurama just shrugged, like always, "Kekkei Genkai"

"Can you tell me what it entails?" Neji finally turned to him.

"With due respect. No way in hell, Jiman-senpai." he smiled to Neji, who just nodded.

The rest of the trip was uneventful, but by the end of it, Tenten had swore to be around Naru-chan more, when she learned what his life had been like, Neji decided that as far as kouhais go Naruto wasn't that bad, he decided that if fate placed him with the boy again he would give him a hand. And Kurama decided that if Neji snapped and tried to kill Gai, he would help. Sacrificing yourself to bring down that thing was a good death.

On the way back both teams where moving in formation. That's when Neji, Hana and the brothers turned to the left, Hana warned "Look out, from the east!"

A sudden gust of wind separated the two teams, and Naruto noticed two chakra signatures going for each one, three had chunin level chakra reserves, but one of the two heading for Team 4 was jonin.

When they showed themselves Kurama could see they were Iwa nin 'Why do they do they wear hitai-ates?'

The jonin pointed at him "This doesn't need to get ugly, just give up the Jinchuriki and we'll be on our way." his face was completely covered in a dark blue face mask and his whole body was covered by a matching jumpsuit, he didn't seem to have any tools or weapons and not a millimeter of his skin was visible. His only other piece of clothing was his bloody hitai-ate, which oddly enough would cover his eyes, if he could see despite the jump suit.

Although Ino and Noriko didn't know what a Jinchuriki was they accompanied Hana's scream "Hell no!"

"Good. I can spill Konoha's blood" he smirked behind his face mask "I'll handle the girl, you grab the boy and kill the other two." The chunin next to him nodded, he was carrying a pair of tonfa, wore a the bottom part of a kimono, on his torso however was only a chunin vest, no shirt underneath it, his hitai-ate was around his neck.

The masked man charged at Hana, sending a punch towards her face and another towards her stomach, she blocked them both, only for one of his legs to disappear and come out of his stomach, kicking into hers. She was pushed back a little, and the man started wobbling towards her, then he jumped and his leg was gone again, coming out of his shoulder and swinging down, but this time she was ready, ducking out of the way. The man was obviously a taijutsu specialist, and he could move his limbs around as much as he wanted, but he was still one against four, she smirked when three Gatsugas came at him from behind, then she frowned when with two leg and one arm, he stopped them all.

Kurama knew he couldn't worry about Inu-nee-chan right now, so he started barking orders "Manako-chan, stick close to Kegawa-chan and cover me with the staffs. Kegawa-chan save your chakra and protect the two of you, and me, if I need to retreat, ok?" they nodded and he barely had time to duck under the tonfa, aimed at his head, but the second one managed to trip him. Flat on his back he watched the chunin dodge Manako-chan's staffs and move in towards them. He jumped in front of the chunin and scratch at his arm, with chakra enhanced claws, cutting deep. The chunin answered by smacking him to the right, breaking three of his ribs and launching hims towards the jonin fight. Kurama turned to see where he would fall and saw his Inu-nee-chan and the brothers being held back by his members, which where all on the wrong places, but where still only four, the Kyuubi smiled ignoring the pain on his ribs, putting his hands together as if praying 'Kan Bibu! (First Tail!)' his body began to change, now looking more like a wolf then like a fox, and after just one second his chakra was like an Inuzuka's.

'Gatsuga' thanks to the fact that he didn't yell out his jutsu, the jonin didn't bother to look back, figuring the chunin could handle what ever the chakra spike was. The Iwa nin had no way of protecting his back, and he was locked in place by the other four drills, so when Kurama hit him, for two seconds his back didn't give in, but that was too fast for a seal-less Kawamiri, so Kurama carved a hole that covered half of the jonin's chest, the nin's members where ripped apart by the other drills.

Then he fell down 'Fucking tonfa! Didn't see that coming did ya?' he smiled at himself, but then he remembered his teammates where in trouble, it took him a while to get up but when he did he saw the "Fucking tonfa" was in a similar state as the jonin. "Fantastic Naru-chan!" Hana yelled hugging him, and apparently not noticing his grunt of pain, but he forgot it as well when Manako-chan and Kegawa-chan joined in the hug 'Three ribs for this? Worth it!' he smiled and laughed when the genin pulled away realizing that he was covered in blood and meat, but Hana was in a similar state, so she didn't bother, but when they were removing the bits of Iwa nin from their hair, Hana gave him a peck on the lips "Thank you for fighting by my side, Kurama-kun!"


	9. Chapter 9

Kyuubi no Yoko: The Second

Chapter 9: Meet the demons

AN: A few things first:

On this chapter I'll introduce a good amount of characters, I'll also be giving canon a huge middle finger when it comes to a few of them, please let it slide.

I'll try to be more specific about the time line from now on, but to everyone that was confused: between the team sparing match and the C-rank mission were a few months, let's say three, it took them this long to get a C-rank because no one snapped at the Hokage (Like Naruto did in the original, and Kiba did in my fic) and they went through all of the D-ranks they had to.

I might be wrong, but I think what was discussed in the meeting at the end of chapter 7 qualifies as a S-rank secret because Sarutobi thinks those abilities are caused by the Kyuubi being sealed inside Naruto. So instead of half-truths (Kekkei Genkai) it's best to go with complete lies.

And a couple of shouts:

Inverness: The reasons I played the Kitsune card are the following:

A lot of people do, so I thought I could get away with it. Sorry about that...

I didn't want to go with any of the three big summoning contracts.

And I want to give Kurama the impression that outside from Konoha, it's heaven on earth. That he has Itachi ready to help, the Kitsune are ready to serve him. And when he leaves, maybe it won't be all roses.

Daveoo mangeoo: You ask a lot of questions, but ok:

Not exactly traumatized, but changed, he left the village believing that he left all the other rookies to eat his dust, only to allow his teammates and his client to be butchered. Doesn't do wonders for one's confidence or mental stability, I mean, he asked for the mission, so it's his fault right?

You do realize that Kurama = Naruto in my fic right? 'Cause I've got four girls lined up so far.

I don't want to spoil what's going to happen to Sasuke, I've seen it happen before, but not in the way I'm going to do it. So you have to wait, but I won't be long now.

Nicknames:

Neko-aniki = Uchiha Itachi

Inu-nee-chan = Inuzuka Hana

Manako-chan = Yamanaka Ino

Heihou = Nara Shikamaru

Kegawa-chan = Oonishi Noriko

Fundo = Uchiha Sasuke

Niku-kun = Akimichi Choji

Mugon-san = Hyuga Hinata

Tsumeato-sensei = Umino Iruka

Subaku-san = Aburame Shino

Kemuri-jii-san = Hiruzen Sarutobi

Bunshin-senpai = Rock Lee

Jiman-senpai = Hyuga Neji

Nee-chan-senpai = Tenten

Dokuji-sensei = Maito Gai

Arai = Uzumaki Naruto (Shikamaru)

Ai = Sabaku no Gaara

Kumo = Nii Yugito

Nevertheless, disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of it's original characters. Anything other then that can be used without asking for permission, but I would like if you let people know where you got the idea.

Well, shall we?

Kurama woke up in his sleeping bag, ready to open his eyes and see his team and his senpai happy and proud, for defeating the Iwa ambush. When he did open his eyes, however, he saw three girls frowning and pouting at him, though Inu-nee-chan was no where to be found. "Uh... What's up?"

"Naruto-kun." he didn't think he ever saw Manako-chan mad at him "Have you been hiding something from us?"

He sighted dejected, at least their reactions would tell him what to expect if they actually learned his real secret "It's about what he called me, right? A Jinchuriki..."

"What? No, Hana-sensei" the name came with a little venom " has already explained us that. Who cares if you have a monster in your stomach." he flinched at the word 'monster', but Noriko couldn't understand why, she made sure to say it in a way that showed him she knew he wasn't the Kyuubi.

"Then what's this about?" he turned to Nee-chan-senpai, the only one that hadn't answered any of his questions.

"Something I saw, when the two of them where distracted. When me and Neji came to check on your team." she narrowed her eyes "Right after you killed that jonin, did something special happen Naruto-kun?"

"My team came to celebrate" he turned to the two others "You were there, what's the problem?"

"Well, we didn't celebrate as much as Hana-sensei, now did we?" Ino's eyes narrowed just an inch.

"That's because you didn't want to be covered in Iwa nin, right?" what did Inu-nee-chan do to piss them off like this? 'Oh! Oh... This is going to end badly...'

"We wouldn't have minded if it meant you wouldn't..." began Ino, but then she changed her mind "Have you ever done that with her before?"

"No, but it was really nice. It's called kissing, isn't it?" he asked with a small smile 'That's it, play the fool, your innocent, you didn't do anything wrong.'

"Yes... but your not supposed to do it with anyone older then you!" shrieked Kegawa-chan.

"Anyone a lot older! Something like a year doesn't really matter..." said Tenten looking down.

"But I like Inu-nee-chan, just like I like you three, and kissing is even better then hugging." he defended himself 'Yes, you live in the woods, you don't know what the big deal is, it's just something nice'.

"Wait, does that mean you want to kiss me?" Ino's eyes where sparkling, the fact that he wanted to kiss three other girls? Forgotten.

"Of course." he smiled. And in one second he was tackled by the blond girl and her lips pressed hard on his. After a second she pulled back and stared into Kurama's eyes, and after another...

"Get away from him!" she was pulled back by Tenten and Noriko.

The weapon mistress turned to Kurama "Naruto-kun... Do... You... Want..."

"To get back to sleep, because his ribs might start acting up! Good idea Tenten!" came Hana's voice, though she was talking to Tenten she was glaring at Ino.

"Inu-nee-chan! Jiman-senpai!" he called when he saw the two of them entering the camp "Where were you? And where is Dokuji-sensei and Bunshin-senpai?"

"Probably in Konoha already..." Hana glared at the direction of the village "After he killed the chunin that attacked his team, he noticed Lee was injured so he grabbed the boy and took off. Left me responsible for you all, never mind the fact that I'm a med nin..."

"Naruto, how where you able to use an Inuzuka jutsu?" the fact that his sensei had abandoned him in the middle of nowhere didn't seem to bother Neji.

Kurama just shrugged "Kekkei Genkai."

It looked like Neji would press the matter this time, but Hana decided to intervene "All right, that's enough. Naruto-kun go back to bed, you're still not fully healed. Tenten and Noriko, grab the first brother and go take the last watch! Neji and Ino, you both go to sleep as well, we'll leave at seven am, sharp."

* * *

><p><p>

A month after Kurama had his first C-rank was Shikamaru's turn. Now, a couple weeks later, he was back at the village. It was three am and they were leaving "The Shelter" a shinobi bar. "Man... I still can't believe they sold us sake!" hiccuped Kurama.

"Well, you know what they... I... Say: Old enough to kill, old enough to drink!" yelled Heihou, one of his arms over the Kyuubi's shoulder, both stumbling down the street.

"Bah, we barely drank! You had, like... cups and you can't even stand on your own!" glared Kurama at his friend.

"I just tried to keep up with you... You're the one that drinks that... Stuff! Like it's water, fox boy!" said Shikamaru, pointing at his support.

"What the hell are you talking about? Nah, you're right, how do ya do you do we know?" asked Kurama, with only one eye open.

"Come on! I'm smart! You look like a fox, your birthday's the day the Kyuubi attacked, you're a Jinchuriki, churuku, chiriki... I did my research!" they fell, hard.

"Hahaha!" laughed Kurama, getting up and dragging his friend with him "Close but no cigar, Hei! I'm the Kyuubi! Not some human cage..."

"Are you still Arai?" asked Shikamaru staring at the red eyes next to him, like he could see through them.

"Yeah, don't worry, I don't even remember anything from before I was sealed!" laughed the Kitsune.

"Good enough for me, or at least... Drunk me? I might hunt you down in the morning." the Nara heir joined Kurama's laughter. "Is that my house?"

"Holy fuck, it is! Damn, my forest is on the other side of the village! Fuck!" he wanted to break something.

"Buwahahaha! Well good luck getting there, fox boy!" but in one second he was serious "Hey, Arai... How do you... I, like, killed a guy, that's what I wanted to talk to you about... Before the sake..."

"I know this sounds... Like bull-shit, but... Pretend it didn't happen! Ignore it, distract yourself... And if you do remember, picture the guy, like, when you fought him, like, remember the killing intent, give him some horns and a forked tong too!" he patted his friend on the back.

"So the genin I captured with my shadow and forced him... To walk off a cliff was a monster? Not me?" both eyes closed, but he was awake.

"Yeah! He must have been trying to kill your teammates man! Save Niku-kun and the girl that doesn't talk!" cheered Kurama.

"You're rught, right! Thanks Arai, I'll... haha... I'll see you in hell!" that's when he walked inside, only for Kurama to hear something as rare as the cry of a phoenix. A yell from Shikamaru. After he walked in, Kurama could hear a woman shouting about how he was too young to be out this late, and drinking! He was raised better! Until... "Old enough to kill! Old enough to drink!" and then there was silence, it seems his mother understood how her son's last mission went.

Kurama decided to go now, he took a few shortcuts through some alleys. And passed out in one of them.

Kurama woke up with a massive headache and stinking of sake, he had no clue where he was and how get here, but decided to go home, on the way he remembered everything, did he really tell Heihou the truth? 'Fuck... Well, nothing to do but wait for his reaction.'

After cleaning himself in a river that ran close to his tree, he changed his clothes and decided to go have a real lunch, his head was hurting and he was in no mood to cook. He decided to go to that ramen place where he didn't need to Henge, the girl that worked there was cute, but he forgot one thing: The owner was happy, and happy people tend to be loud... And since you don't fight with the people that cook for you, he just listened and tried to keep his head from exploding.

But after his meal, he smelled something, two scents that reminded him of his own, neither smelled like a fox, one was a raccoon and the other a cat. But the two of them smelled... Royal.

He dashed towards what he though were two biju, and arrived at an interesting scene.

A boy, probably one or two years older then him, who was wearing what he could only imagine was a black cat costume and purple war paint, had lifted some kid with an oversized scarf by the front of his shirt. Behind him was a blond girl, with dark green eyes, her hair tied into four pony-tails and a giant folded fan on her back, she wore some sort of short shoulder-less dress, she had a red sash around her waist, with fish nets around her legs and shoulder. Behind her, standing on a tree was a boy around Kurama's age, he was beyond pale and had green eyes, with black rings around them, and a kanji for love tattooed over his left eye. He had short, spiky, red hair and wore a black overall with short sleeves, a white cloth over his right shoulder and and he had a brown gourd on his back, but most importantly: he smelled like a raccoon.

Staring them down were to pale blond girls that looked like sisters, though the one on the left had lighter and shorter hair that ended at her shoulders, while the other one's was long and bound by taut bandages. The one on the left had blue eyes, while the other had black, she wore a grey short kimono-like outfit with red arm-guards and high boots, along with a tanto strapped to her back. The other girl wore a short-sleeved black and purple blouse and black pants, both of which had a design similar to clouds on them, purple fingerless gloves with a chain of white beads around her left hand, but most importantly: she smelled like a cat.

In front of the first boy was another one, this one had dark skin and short, spiky, white hair, he wore a dark hooded shirt and was sucking on a lollipop, while arguing with the guy in the cat costume "But if you hurt the kid, they might think we're targeting the future generations of Konoha, and they might think that all hidden village's are in on it, and they might cancel the chunin exam and that would damage the political relationships between all villages and that might trigger the Fourth Shinobi World War!".

"That sounds like fun! Maybe you should give it a try" called Kurama, gaining their attention, then he pointed at the redhead and the blond girl without the tanto " Ai-san (Love-san), Kumo-san (Cloud-san), can I talk with the two of you somewhere else?" Kurama noticed that the first group, except the little kid, all had Suna (Sand) hitai-ates, while the other group all had Kumo (Cloud) hitai-ates.

The two of them exchanged a glance, but it was the cat-boy that answered, dropping the little kid, that ran as fast as it could "And where does a civilian get the right to ask something like that out of foreign shinobi?"

The Kyuubi just sighted, grabbing his hitai-ate from his pocket and showing it "I just thought we could understand each other, since we all carry the same burden." he smiled first at the wide eyed girl, then at the narrowed eyed boy.

"What are you talking about?" asked the Kumo male, but everyone else understood.

"If you don't know, then you shouldn't." answered Kurama with a smile "I really want to talk to you guys, I think we all went through the same and can help one another."

"Fine." answered Ai-san, though his face was completely emotionless.

"I'll go as well." Kumo-san nodded towards her sister, who closed her eyes and nodded back.

"Oi, Gaara..." started the other Suna nin, but they were gone, running after Kurama, towards the village walls, he moved to follow, but was intercepted by the remaining Kumo kunochi.

"If those two really are like Nee-san, it's not a good idea to go against their wishes" they stared at each other.

"She's right, imagine what Gaara would do to you if you pissed him off, times three." said the Suna kunochi. The boy shivered at this, and gave up his pursuit.

They three genin slipped through a hidden passage in the village's wall and ran until they arrived at a small clearing in the forest surrounding Konoha, where Kurama stopped, followed by the other two "Ok, small confession" he turned smiling at the two "You are both Jinchuriki, prisons for biju, I, on the other hand am I biju myself, my name is Kurama, also known as the Kyuubi no Yoko"

That got both of their eyes wide "Then why do you look human?" asked Kumo-san, her eyes narrow.

"Because my sealer was an incompetent." he shook his head and pointed at his stomach "instead of sealing me here" he then pointed at his head "he sealed me here. But don't worry, I've lived the life of a Jinchuriki so I am serious about us helping each other."

"I know how you can help me, Kurama, mother wants your blood." smiled Gaara.

"I figured something like this would happen, but who the hell is mother?" he turned to the girl "Do you want to get in as well? If not you should stay a little back."

She did just that, while Ai popped the cork of his gourd and launched the sand towards Kurama, but with a puff of smoke, the Kyuubi was behind him, he spun and hit Gaara in the side of his head with a elbow, launching the boy away, shame he got up like it was nothing, except for some cracks covering half his face "It took you one strike to breach my first line of defense, hahahaha, I'll feed your blood to mother and prove my existence Kurama!" he reached into the air and the sand surrounded the Kyuubi, but in another puff of smoke he was back where he began, and in his place was Gaara's cork.

'He can use Kawarimi that fast, with something that small, without seals?' then she turned to Gaara 'and his face is no longer marked, he has that armor and so much control over his sand... Are they stronger then me?'

Gaara lifted his other hand and yelled "Suna Shuriken! (Sand Shuriken!)" and dozens of sand-stars flew toward Kurama, who crouched and slapped his hands together as if praying 'Kan Bibu!' and entered his Inuzuka form 'Gatsuga!' turning into a grey drill, he easily destroyed the shuriken in his path and headed for Ai-san. And for the first time in Gaara's life, he dodged, but he was still hit on the shoulder, his sand wasn't strong enough to stop the attack, and he bleed.

Looking at his wound Gaara couldn't even scream, the biju had hurt him so easily, if he stopped he would die. He took the ram seal and yelled "Tanuki Neiri no Jutsu! (Feigning Sleep Technique!)" and before Kurama could do anything, a massive sand-made tanuki stood in front of him, and all he could do was run. 'How do I kill that thing! Fuck! Fuck! Wait, is that Ai-san in his head? Maybe if I can get him...' he trailed off, dodging the sand that chased him and deactivating the first tail.

Kumo-san watched the Kyuubi run through six seals she had never seen before, and on his shoulder appeared a very small, eye-patch wearing, yellow two tailed fox "Kurama-sama! How can I help you?"

The blond smiled "Look behind us, Michi" the little fox did, and screamed like a little girl.

"Kurama-sama! That's Shukaku-sama!" cried the fox.

"So that's his name!" he laughed "If I die I should know who killed me, now, Michi, I need you to bite the guy on his forehead."

"But Kurama-sama!" pleaded Michi.

"Now! Michi!" glared the Kyuubi, deciding his master was the bigger evil, since he could summon him at will, the little fox ran, dodging Shukaku's sand and getting ever closer.

But from far away all Yugito saw was the little fox disappear and a yellow blur run towards, then up, Shukaku, moving too fast for the sand to hold, but when he jumped towards Gaara, he exploded in a smoke could and was replaced by Kurama, his claws glowing red with chakra, swiping at Gaara's head, the only think Shukaku could do was pull his head back, so only four of the claws reached the sand armor, and only three cut the Jinchuriki's flesh, with a scream Gaara woke up and held his bleeding face, he fell breaking through half a dozen branches, after a few moments, Kurama dropped on his feet, a few cuts and scratches, from the sand and wind, in his clothes and skin, but in better condition.

Slapping his palms together again 'Yon Bibu! (Fourth Tail!)' that's when his eyes turned almost entirely blue, with a very small black iris, his hair grew lighter and he gained a very faint blue chakra tail. He put together his thumbs, index and middle finger, lifting the others, aiming at Gaara with the opening between his hands he called "Kumo-san, please take care of our bodies." 'Shintenshin no Jutsu! (Mind Body Switch Technique!)'

The inside of Gaara's mind wasn't a desert, it was a pool with muddied water, well, it must have started as a pool surrounded by white marble, but the sand had gained entrance and was dirtying the water more every second.

It took Kurama a few moments to realize that he wasn't in his human form, but in his original form, the Kyuubi no Yoko in all of it's glory, and far away from the pool he could see dunes of sand, he could see a form almost as big as his, a tanuki wrapped and trapped in white paper, like a mummy, but he could see that a small part of the bindings had already ripped, and other parts were threatening to give in, every few seconds the tanuki growled, trying to break free, and with every attempt the water from the pool grew dirtier.

"Ichi! (One!)" roared Kurama, his voice deeper, more powerful and commanding then usual "Leave the seal alone and call back your sand!"

"Or what?" demanded the other biju "This is MY mind..."

"No it isn't, it's Ai's! So you're no stronger here then I am, and with you sealed, well, just guess what I can do to you!" smiled the Kyuubi.

The tanuki appeared to swallow hard, despite being a beast made of sand, and with his bluff called, he called back his sand, revealing the clear poll once again "You will give Ai your power whenever he asks. It's the least you can do after what you put him through." He left, without waiting for an answer.

Kurama got up and returned to his normal form to find Yugito staring at him, deep in thought "You defeated Shukaku without calling on your power as a biju..." she mussed.

"I am a biju. This is my power, Kumo-san" smiled Kurama "It's different then a Jinchuriki, I'll bet, but I like it." he slapped his palms together again 'Go Bibu! (Fifth Tail!)', he was surrounded by a cloak of green chakra with a green tail, he put his hand over Gaara's face 'Shosen Jutsu! (Mystical Palm Technique!)' and closed the wounds on his face and fixed Gaara's left eye, but he didn't bother making the scars go way.

Gaara opened his eyes, and looked around him, trees where cut or broken down, sand was everywhere, and a Kurama with battered clothes was looking at him, along with the Kumo kunochi, but one thing was missing "Mother's voice, it's gone... I can think... I'm tired... Did you do this?" he asked Kurama, who just smiled and nodded.

"Good, now before you go to bed Ai, I have a proposition for the two of you." at first he kept his smile, but grew serious "First I want to know how you were treated at your villages."

"I... Was an outcast, everyone fears me back in Suna and many times my father, the Kazekage, has tried to have me killed" it didn't seem to bother him, but they could tell he was acting, they both did as well.

"I was also feared, but I am the Raikage's weapon so no one tried to harm me." answered Yugito, she didn't try to hide her pain, she knew it was pathetic compared to Gaara, but aside from her sister, she was alone, so very alone that she had been ready to follow two men, from another village, into the woods, just for the chance of companionship.

"What about you, Kurama-sama? How where you raised?" asked Gaara, catching the Kyuubi by surprise by the honorific.

"Ai... I want you as an ally, not as a servant, don't call me 'sama'. But to answer your question: I wasn't raised, I've lived in the woods by myself for the last six years. I am hated in Konoha, and as I grew the village grew more and more dangerous for me, no one has the guts to stab a four year-old, but an eight year-old, if they're angry enough..." he explained "Which leads me to my proposition, have you ever heard of a man called Uchiha Itachi?"

"The butcher of the Uchiha?" asked Yugito, raising an eyebrow.

"I prefer to call him, Neko-aniki, he was the first person to ever care for me, he taught me how to survive and one of the reasons, but I know there are more, for the Uchiha Massacre was to protect me from them." Kurama gave a small, sad smile.

"Then why did he leave you here, Kurama?" not that Gaara wasn't happy that this man was here, but still.

"Because a academy student traveling with a S-class missing nin, is going to get them both killed" he closed his eyes to answer "He was going to wait until I became a chunin so we could travel and he could train me, but now, he found a way to keep me safe, he is creating a hidden village, and it could very well be a safe heaven for me, as well as for you, so if we could find a way to escape from Konoha, we could go there, we would still be required to fight, I won't lie, but as shinobi, not as weapons."

"If I go with you, can you keep mother quiet?" Gaara almost whispered.

"Yes, I can. What about you Kumo?" he smiled, that small smile she was beginning to like "Do you want to come? Think you convince your sister?"

"I'll try, but I know that even if she didn't come, she would let me go... But I won't leave without her, I'm sorry Kurama-san..." she looked down.

"It's alright Kumo, just talk to her, if you can't come, then we'll see you some other time." he turned to Gaara "Is there anyone you want to bring, Ai?"

"Now that I can... Think. I would like to spend some time with my brother and sister" they both raised eyebrows "The two on my team, if I think they can be trusted I'll tell them, and invite them."

"Good, then..." Kurama began, but stopped when Gaara... Raised his hand... "Ai, this isn't a classroom, just say what you want."

"Very well, it's just that I think I know the perfect time for us to leave." he gave his first true smile in a while, not a sadistic grin or a smirk, an actual smile. He had a comrade now, maybe two, and he was going to help them.


	10. Chapter 10

Kyuubi no Yoko: The Second

Chapter 10: Back to the classroom.

AN: No action on this chapter, just a shit-load of character and story development, oh, and don't think "that" about the ending, you pervert. And I'll give the Omake a try, but it might take a while, I won't post it until it's funny.

Nicknames:

Neko-aniki = Uchiha Itachi

Inu-nee-chan = Inuzuka Hana

Manako-chan = Yamanaka Ino

Heihou = Nara Shikamaru

Kegawa-chan = Oonishi Noriko

Fundo = Uchiha Sasuke

Niku-kun = Akimichi Choji

Mugon-san = Hyuga Hinata

Tsumeato-sensei = Umino Iruka

Subaku-san = Aburame Shino

Kemuri-jii-san = Hiruzen Sarutobi

Bunshin-senpai = Rock Lee

Jiman-senpai = Hyuga Neji

Nee-chan-senpai = Tenten

Dokuji-sensei = Maito Gai

Arai = Uzumaki Naruto (Shikamaru)

Ai = Sabaku no Gaara

Kumo = Nii Yugito

Ooki-san = Morino Ibiki

Chi-chan = Mitarashi Anko

Nevertheless, disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of it's original characters. Anything other then that can be used without asking for permission, but I would like if you let people know where you got the idea.

Well, shall we?

"By the time my squad arrived at the scene the... Sand beast was no where to be found" explained an ANBU wearing a bear mask "A giant clearing had been made, with the trees being cut down, broken or simply up-rooted. We didn't risk getting to close without knowing what was happening, so I had Taka (Hawk) used his byakugan to see through the remaining trees, he tells me there where three people sited on the ground talking. Uzumaki Naruto, Sabaku no Gaara, a genin of Suna, and Nii Yugito, a genin of Kumo."

He paused giving time for the council members to digest the information "And? Were you able to listen to them?" demanded Koharu.

"Taka could read their lips, and from what he told me, the Suna genin was telling them about a time his father, the Kazekage, ordered his uncle to kill him. After that the girl told them about a her first kill, a missing nin from Kumo was dragged to her room and had his arms cut off... She was told to kill him or just let him suffer untill he died." he pause again, for a few moments "From what I gathered from their exchange, I believe the two of them are also Jinchuriki."

"And what else did they say? Are the three planning something?" shrieked Haruno.

The ANBU went on to list every story shared by the three genin, they had talked about what they went through, how they where raised and treated. Uzumaki as an outcast, Gaara as a target and Yugito as a weapon.

"So they just talked?" Homura asked with a raised eyebrow "No plans for revenge? No schemes?"

"Honestly?" asked the ANBU "It sounded like they formed a therapy group."

That was answered with silence, for a while.

"There has to be more to it then that! What the hell happened to the sand monster?" demanded Koharu.

"I don't know, I think they fought at first, the Suna genin has a scar over his left eye now. I think he was clawed by Uzumaki." sighted the ANBU "We can't detain the other two, since they are here as guest, so the only way of knowing what happened would be interrogating Uzumaki." he finished, staring at the Hokage. But the answer came from Danzo.

"We can't have that, the boy is under Itachi's protection. If he hears we have him detained, I don't think he'll hesitate returning to Konoha and breaking him free" he declared, surprising a lot of people.

"We need to have him followed, but if he continues to meet with the Kazegake's son we can't risk our spies being found... We need someone close to him. I will have to order Hana to report on the boy, once the chunin exams are over." decided the Hokage.

"Why wait? We need weekly reports." asked Hiashi, as interesting as he found the boy, he wasn't trust worthy.

"Don't worry, I'll ask for those." nodded Sarutobi "But I'll need Inoichi to extract the last report form her head." he sighed.

"What!" roared Tsume "How dare you..." but she was cut off by the Hokage.

"I dare because your daughter has lied to us about the boy before." he let out another sighed "And she will do it again, I was planning on changing Team 4's jonin sensei, but now I can't. Hana is too attached to the boy, I'm surprised she can think of her other students... But I imagine it's just so Naruto won't see her in a bad way."

Tsume sat back down, fuming, but she knew she couldn't do anything. She would have to make sure her daughter didn't lie when reporting, if she did the lies would be found and the results horrible.

* * *

><p>Hana was in a surprisingly good mood, even if she had just been ordered to spy on her Kurama-kun but she didn't care, he hadn't done anything wrong, and if he did, she would just have to lie, but back to what matters, she also had permission from the Hokage to enter her team in the chunin exams! Kurama-kun is going to be able to show the village just how strong he is.<p>

When she arrived at the training ground her team used to meet up, she saw a sight that would make most woman angry, her love interest was kissing Noriko, while Ino lay unconscious on the floor, only to be joined by Noriko in a few seconds. She didn't like seeing her Kurama-kun with other girls, but if he proved strong enough, he could have as many mates as he wanted, Hana would be his first though.

"Kurama-kun!" she liked calling him by his name, she knew she was the only girl that even knew it "I've got good news! You're going to be a chunin!"

Between her hug and her pecks Kurama had a difficult time talking "Really? That's great! So I don't even have to take the exam?"

"Hehe, well, no... You have to take it, but there's no way you wouldn't pass!" she smiled.

"Good, so Manako-chan and Kegawa-chan can too, right?" he smiled.

"Yes, yes, the whole team takes the exam..." not that she cared about them "We'll tell them when they wake up, while we wait... I made you lunch!" she unsealed a bento from a scroll she had.

With one sniff Kurama could tell there was only meat inside. "Thanks Inu-nee-chan." he gave her a short kiss and grabbed the bento.

"How on earth did you convince those two to share you?" she had hoped at least one of them would be put off from the idea...

"I don't understand what's the problem, it makes sense to have as many mates as you can, especially if you like them..." he went back to eating.

Mates? He was talking like an Inuzuka and she was the one that explained relationships to him, so... It was her fault that she had to share?

* * *

><p>A week ago Hana-sensei had told them that they would be entering the chunin exam, so both Ino and Noriko had been practicing like their lives depended on it, they wouldn't let Naruto-kun down. And that's why Ino had slept a full twenty eight hours, in seven days, but since the exam was tomorrow, she finished her training a bit earlier and went home to get at least eight hours of sleep.<p>

Of course, when she arrived, her father decided it was a good time to do some father-daughter bonding. "Hime! (Princess!) You've been working hard this last few days, think you're ready for the exam?"

"Yeah, I think so, if Noriko kept her end of the bargain, then she can protect us, while I cover Naruto-kun. So we shouldn't have too much problems." her father gave a small frown.

"The Yamanaka don't have that many jutsu that can protect a moving ally..." he trailed off.

"I know, so I've been working on my Doton." 'And here we go again' she thought.

"You don't need that kind of jutsu, hime, I still don't understand why the Hokage didn't put you with Shikaku's and Choza's boys, our clans work well together, we've done things that way for a long time."

Ino was not in the mood for this, her father didn't care she wasn't in that team, no matter what he claimed, he just didn't like Naruto-kun, just because he told her she could choose between Yamanaka and Doton! It's not like she gave up on her clan either! She still worked on hard on learning Yamanaka jutsu! She just didn't want to be a siting duck, until the enemy was captured. "If it's been around for so long, then I bet a lot of people know how to counter it. Good night, Otou-san."

She went to bed without another word, despite her father's protests.

* * *

><p>'Finally' thought Noriko, after trowing herself in bed, not bothering to change her clothes. She was planning on taking a quick shower and going to bed, but her dad decided to try and talk her out of the chunin exam. Some random idiot told him that people die in them. 'What the hell do you think is going to happen to me? Do you think I'm going to live forever?' she knew she was being unfair but so was he, when her mother was alive he used to support her, encourage her, now? It's like she's made of glass.<p>

'I can't let Naruto-kun and Ino-chan down...' they were her friends, they answered all her questions, even stuff they thought was stupid, 'What's chakra? What's a Kekkei genkai? What's taijutsu? Ninjutsu? Genjutsu?' everyone thought she was annoying but Naruto-kun would always answer, whenever it wasn't about him, and Ino would always answer whenever it was about Naruto-kun. Her mother had taught her that knowledge was a weapon, and the only people willing to arm her were Naruto-kun and Ino-chan. 'I won't let them down.'

* * *

><p>It was late, Shikamaru knew he should have gone to bed a while ago but he really felt that this time he stood a chance, a normal person would have already declared himself victorious but Shikamaru knew his father was too good, if he let his guard down for one move, it would be over. 'Hell, there's a chance it's already over' if you asked him, he would tell you that his father could still win with only his king. That's how good he was at shogi.<p>

And sure enough, no matter how carefully Shikamaru planned and how much attention he paid. He lost. "You're getting good, son." nodded his father "It's good to see you haven't forgotten that you're a strategist, but I would never let you lead my army."

"Why not?" he did well didn't he? Or was his father just playing around?

"Troublesome boy, you only stop attacking when it's to save one of your pieces... And you try to do it by attacking as well." Shikaku sighed "And you try to save them all. Sometimes you have to sacrifice, son... If that's how you'll lead your troops then I don't think you are fit to be a chunin."

Shikamaru smirked "Then I'm glad it's not your decision to make." then grew serious "Besides, if I have the strength, why shouldn't I attack?"

"Because you don't have the strength, the Nara jutsu are not supposed to be used in open combat." that's why a Nara isn't supposed to be a 'prodigy', you only need strategy if you are the underdog, if you have confidence you can win in a straight forward fight, why would you use tricks? Why would you think?

Shikamaru just sighed, why did his father underestimate him like that? If he was weaker he would use his head, if he was dumber, he would use his fist, it seemed like a good combo. "I'll keep it in mind, Otou-san, but I'll be going to bed now. Good night."

* * *

><p>Morning came and, alongside with his teammates, Kurama entered the Academy "Didn't think we would be back here so soon..."<p>

"Could have been sooner if we failed the genin test." added Kegawa-chan.

"She's right, and... Oh! We're here already?" she asked, looking at a crowd of chunin hopefuls trying to enter room number 301.

"No, we're in the second floor, and there's to much chakra in this place. We should leave, nothing good will come out of staying here" he turned towards the stairs, knowing he was being followed by his teammates "When we get to the room, please don't talk to anyone we know, ok?"

"Why?" asked both girls.

"Because it's better if the enemy doesn't know who are our allies." he smiled, having reached the right classroom, he walked in.

The first thing he noticed was that there were a lot of genin in there, at least twenty teams and there was still plenty of time for more to arrive. The second thing was Heihou's team, Mugon-san was sweating bullets, Niku-kun was eating and Heihou was staring at the door, watching everyone that entered. When he saw Kurama he closed his eyes and gave him a slight nod, but that was enough, so Kurama turned away, hopefully no one noticed the interaction.

Next he found Ai's team, the red-head had already taken a sit in one of the empty chairs, his eyes met Kurama's and he did the same thing as Heihou, his sister noticed this and her eyes widened, darting between the two of them, while cat boy remained oblivious. Kurama saw no else he cared about, so he took a random seat as well.

After a few minutes Kumo's team walked in, Kumo wasn't as subtle as the other two and gave him a small smile, only to receive glares from his teammates, who were immediately confused when she turned to the red-head that had nodded to Naruto-kun before and did the same thing.

"Do the three of you know each other?" Manako-chan whispered.

"Yes, they are friends and allies." he smiled

"I bet you need a lot of those, don't you, second place?" grinned Sasuke, his sharingan flaring.

Kami, how he hated those eyes "Impressive eyes, Fundo. But tell me, do they make you any faster?" smirked Kurama.

"Want to find out?" glared the Uchiha.

"Maybe he will, but in the exam" cut in a boy wearing a grey over coat and sun glasses behind Sasuke, he smelled like bugs "If you fight here we might be disqualified Uchiha-san."

"You have a lot of luck, second place." taunted Sasuke, turning back.

"Yeah, right! Naruto-kun could wipe the floor with you, teme!" shouted Ino, turning all the room towards them.

"My, my, you sounds like you are still at the academy." cut in a grey haired boy with a purple outfit and glasses "Maybe you should be quiet and not attract that much attention."

"Let's all follow your advice, shall we?" answered Kurama, turning away from the boy, he didn't want to mess with him, he had too much chakra, and was too good at hiding it, to be a genin.

Of course, Sasuke didn't, they talked loudly right in the middle of the room, until someone said something bad about Oto (Sound) nin, because they attacked. But before things could escalate...

"Settle down you punks!" shouted a giant of a man, wearing a black rain coat and his hitai-ate was a black bandana "We'll begin the first part of the chunin exam, everyone take a sit" he turned to glare at Kurama, Gaara and three other genin that were already sited "at your designated desks."

In a few seconds everyone was sited and Kurama found himself away from everyone he knew, except Mugon-san, she was right next to him.

"All right, here are to rules for the exam, you start with zero and for every question you answer correctly you get one point, there are ten question but I'll only announce the tenth question when there are only ten minutes left. To pass the test you only need to one point, but if one person fails, his whole team will share his fate. Every time you are caught cheating you lose one point, if you are caught three times, you will be disqualified. Any questions? No? Good. Begin." announced the proctor.

Kurama read the nine questions on the exam and swore, in his head, but he swore a lot, sure he could try to answer the questions, but they were too difficult, he wouldn't get any of them completely right. 'I'm going to have to cheat... But how...' he carefully watched the other genin 'Uh... Heihou's shadow is linked to Niku-kun's and Mugon-san's, his taking the test for the three of them. Manako-chan is... Asleep? No... Must be using Shintenshin no Jutsu? Maybe I could as well, no... If someone finds out I'll be arrested, no one but an Yamanaka has the right to learn that jutsu... Can't see anyone else. What am I going to do? Wait, I don't think this kind of knowledge is necessary for chunin, and everyone is cheating, so you're supposed to cheat! That also explain why you need to be caught three times to get kicked out... Wow! Already? Poor bastard. Back to what matters, if his fucking with us with this questions then the tenth must have a trick as well... Ok, I'll do my best with this one's and wait to see what happens.'

Soon, a quarter of the class had been removed, and the proctor announced "Now, I'll give you the tenth question, but first let me explain it's rules. You can choose if you want to take this question or if you want to give up." a genin started saying something but was cut off "Let me explain why, punk. If you leave you can take the test again but if you stay and fail you'll never make it to chunin, what do you say? Ready to gamble the rest of your careers?"

It was all Kurama could do to keep his laughter inside his head, did he really expect anyone to be stupid enough to fall for that? "I... I'll give up" said a boy in the back of the class, Kurama was shocked, can people really be that stupid?

Yes, they can, after a while half of the classroom was empty, but it was taking longer and longer for people to give up, that's when Kurama noticed Mugon-san was slowly raising her arm, she was going to get Heihou out of the exam? But before she could, her body stiffened and she formed the rat seal with her hands, looking down, Kurama saw Heihou's shadow holding her in place 'Smart' but then she opened her mouth "I... I would..." 'Oh, now she can talk to scary people?'

"Ooki-san (Big-san), I'm tired of sitting here, can we hurry up and give us the question?" began Kurama, politely.

"Are you sure, blondie? If you get it wrong you can never make it pass genin." smirked the proctor.

"Bull-shit." answered the Kyuubi, blondie huh? Fine.

"And what makes you so sure?" demanded the man.

Kurama lifted his hand and showed two fingers, the middle and the index, with the back of his hand towards the man "There are two ways of being promoted to chunin. One is this exam, so let's pretend you can keep us from taking it again, if we fail your tenth question we lose that path" he hid his index, essentially given the man the finger. "So the only other route is being promoted by the leader of our village, so what you want me to believe is that if someone like the Kazekage wants to promote one of his shinobi, you can stop him." he lowered his hand and gave the man a small smile "And that sounds like bull-shit"

Ibiki wasn't the kind of person that let others form his judgment, he had never met the Kyuubi's Jinchuriki so he didn't like or dislike the boy before. Now he hated him, ruining his final test? Passing for the wrong reason? And saving the other spineless bastards that were about to give up! But there was nothing he could do, no one else was going to leave now, so he might as well wrap things up.

"Is there anyone else that wishes to quit?" he turned away without another word towards the blond genin. He sighed "Fine, you all pass..." then he began to explain everything Kurama had already figured out, and when he was done, something broke through the window, Kurama could only see kunai pinning themselves on the corners of the room and a giant banner hid the first proctor, and through the same window came a woman with purple hair tied into spiky ponytail, she wore a tan overcoat, a full body fishnet suit and a orange mini-skirt.

"What the hell, Ibiki?" complained the woman "Look at all this people! You must have been really out of your game today."

Ibiki appeared from behind the banner that read 'Mitarashi Anko: Proctor of the Chunin Exams!' "Maybe, but I would keep an eye on the blond" he said nodding towards Kurama and walking away.

When Kurama saw Anko he just smiled 'Chi-chan! (Blood-chan)'

When Anko saw Kurama she just thought 'Fuck.'


	11. Chapter 11

Kyuubi no Yoko: The Second

Chapter 11: Paths through the forest

AN: Don't think I have anything good to say, so I won't.

Nicknames:

Neko-aniki = Uchiha Itachi

Inu-nee-chan = Inuzuka Hana

Manako-chan = Yamanaka Ino

Heihou = Nara Shikamaru

Kegawa-chan = Oonishi Noriko

Fundo = Uchiha Sasuke

Niku-kun = Akimichi Choji

Mugon-san = Hyuga Hinata

Tsumeato-sensei = Umino Iruka

Subaku-san = Aburame Shino

Kemuri-jii-san = Hiruzen Sarutobi

Bunshin-senpai = Rock Lee

Jiman-senpai = Hyuga Neji

Nee-chan-senpai = Tenten

Dokuji-sensei = Maito Gai

Arai = Uzumaki Naruto (Shikamaru)

Ai = Sabaku no Gaara

Kumo = Nii Yugito

Ooki-san = Morino Ibiki

Chi-chan = Mitarashi Anko

Unzari-san = Aburama Shino

Nevertheless, disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of it's original characters. Anything other then that can be used without asking for permission, but I would like if you let people know where you got the idea.

Well, shall we?

It was two weeks before the beginning of the Chunin Exams. Kurama was sitting cross-legged in the middle of his "living room", re-reading a letter from Neko-aniki because as soon as he put it down, the letter would burn in a weird black fire, that didn't burn anything around it, just the letter. When they arrived they were weird too, this ugly red eyed crows would swoop down, burn in the same black fire, and turn into the letter.

But as happy as the Kyuubi was, with knowing what his brother did and how he was, he didn't like the fact that he couldn't answer. Now he knew that Neko-aniki had helped some priestess in some far-away land and was well on his way to get the support of the lands Daimyo to create a hidden village in it, but he couldn't tell him that he killed a jonin! He knew his brother had a girlfriend now, but he couldn't tell him he had three! Maybe four...

That's when he sensed a chakra that he had encountered before, somewhere on the village. The chakra stopped moving, and after a while, he heard a huge explosion. Someone was demolishing his forest! Kurama immediately set off, running towards the sound, when he arrived the saw a woman he had met once before, when Inu-nee-chan took him to eat something called "dango", it was good, but the woman kept staring at him, like she could see through his Henge.

Said woman was hiding explosive tags under the bark of the trees or between their roots "Chi-chan! What the hell are you doing?"

Chi-chan looked surprised to see him there, or maybe it was the nickname, but she answered back "What does it look like? I'm setting traps!"

"Why are you setting traps in my forest?" she was once again caught by surprise, but this time she didn't show it.

"This isn't your forest, it's training ground 44! And I have my orders." and a kunai planted itself in the tree behind Kurama, right above his head "And what are you even doing here?"

"I've lived here for the past six years, so I don't like the fact that your making it even harder for me to survive." a second kunai appeared, right next to his ear, but like the first time, he didn't flinch, they were too fast for him, they would hit, or not, regardless of what he did. His eyes still widened for a second though.

"Bah! Chunin die on this forest, you expect me to believe a gaki like you can survive here?" she laughed, getting back to work.

"It's safer then the village, at least for me." he shrugged.

"Are you out of your mind? Well, you did say you live on the woods..." she didn't even bother to look up from what she was doing.

"Maybe, but it doesn't mean I'm wrong." he gave her a small smile.

"And why would you be right?" work, work.

He shouldn't tell her, but he needed to keep the conversation going so she wouldn't try to make him leave "Well, there is the whole Jinchuriki thing."

"You're Uzumaki Naruto?" kami he hated that name.

"Yes, and you are?" his eyes ran through all the places he knew she had placed explosive tags.

"You've called me 'Chi-chan' and you don't even know my name?" she smirked.

"You do smell like blood." he shrugged, then felt pain in his cheek, which had been cut by a third kunai.

"There's a reason for that" she laughed, suddenly beside him, licking his blood, and jumping to dodge a fire ball.

"Please don't hurt me." smiled the Kyuubi, as if he hadn't just spit fire at her "I'm not the kind of person that just takes it."

The fire didn't look like it was going to spread "Wow gaki! That was impressive, no seals, no shout? All you need is a decent amount of power in that thing."

"I didn't want to burn my forest down" that was the first time someone smiled after he tried to barbecue them.

"Right, right..." she trailed off, getting back to work.

"Mind if I help you?" Kurama reached for the bag of explosive tags.

"Why?" her eyes narrowed, the she smirked "If you want to spend some time with Nee-chan, you just have to ask."

"For the same reason I've been watching you work" Kurama decided to ignore the last part "I live her, I want to know where your traps are, I can use them, or at least, avoid them."

"Uhhhhhh... Ok, but you can't use them, I'm here in an official mission, so they need to stay." now she was humming.

"Won't animals trigger this?" he asked, placing one where she had been pointing.

"Why do you think we have so many? And that's just tags! I have a lot more stuff to set up." she showed him a dozen storage scrolls.

"And I have to remember where they all are..." he sighed "Fuck you, Chi-chan."

"Maybe in a few years, gaki!" she smirked.

"Seriously? Some kid in the woods? You have really low standards, Chi-chan" a kunai and a fire ball followed this.

* * *

><p>When Anko was told she would be the proctor for the second part of the chunin exams, and that she was supposed to choose one area in Konoha and to make sure a lot of people died in there, she was happy. She wasn't jumping around because she knew what a drag it would be to spend a few days setting up traps in the Forest of Death, but now she WAS jumping around, that Naruto gaki was awesome, he was funny, judge her by shit she did, like smelling like blood, talked back and shot back! Seriously, three or four people just ignored her kunai, while everyone else panicked, but a kid, a genin shot fire balls at her! He was even crazier the she was! And she could tell that in a few years? He would look good. He already had a little muscle, he has almost no baby fat on his face, the whole "wild" things worked really well from him, maybe in a few years they could play with more then weapon and jutsu. And it's no like he was just putting up with her, like Kurenai or Yuugao. Say what he will, he was having as much fun as she was, a little more maybe, since she wore just a coat and a mini-skirt.<p>

Shame that at this pace they would be done by tomorrow... Maybe she should ask him to hang out or something, and if he said no, he was just a genin, she could force him.

* * *

><p>And now Anko was regretting that, not meeting the gaki, mind you, but letting him help with the traps. She had just giving one of the genin a HUGE advantage over all the others, if he opened his mouth she was screwed 'Calm down, Naru-chan is smarter then that, he won't risk his advantage... He better not!'<p>

"Ok gakis! I'm in charge of you guys for the next game!" she grinned "Just follow me and everything will end horribly for you kids!"

Most genin were taken back by this, not Kurama, if he was correct about his suspicion there was little to no chance he would fail.

* * *

><p>The genin gathered around Anko and waited for her explanation.<p>

"This forest behind me is the Training Ground 44, also known as the Forest of Death." she smiled "Before you enter, each team will be given one of this scrolls: Heaven or Earth, and to pass, you need to reach the tower in the middle of the forest in five days with both scrolls! Any questions?"

Ino was about to raise her hand when Kurama held it and shook his head. But she didn't notice that, Naruto-kun was holding her hand!

The Kyuubi looked around to see Heihou holding Niku-kun in place with his shadow. 'Good, don't let them draw attention to us with stupid questions.

"Nothing? Ok, but before you enter" she pointed to a chunin that started distributing papers "You have to sign that. Saying your village can't blame us if you die! Once you've signed, go get a scroll in that tent! Oh, and Naru-chan, think fast!" she then threw a Heaven Scroll at Kurama, who had just signed his paper.

"Fuck you, Chi-chan." now everybody knew which scroll his team had.

"I've already told you, wait a few years gaki!" she winked at him "Now everyone, get your scrolls and head to your gates! Now!" the killing intent in that one word was enough to speed up everyone, except Kurama, and with him, his team.

"H-Hey... Na-Naruto-kun... D-D-Do you know that... Wo-Woman?" asked Ino, feeling angry that another older beautiful girl was flirting with her Naruto-kun, but feeling terrified that she was, apparently, a psychopath.

"Yeah, Chi-chan's kind of weird but she's really fun." he gave her a smile when they arrived at their gate "But now we don't have time for Chi-chan, when the gate opens I'll lead the way, we'll take it to the trees, touch only the branches I touch. Kegawa-chan goes in the middle, if I call your name, and I mean your real name, Noriko-chan, I want you to make a shield for the three of us. Manako-chan goes last, if you hear me call Kegawa-chan, stick as close to her as you can, we'll defend ourselves with the normal formation, Ok?"

The two girls nodded, an alarm rang and the gates opened.

* * *

><p>Shikamaru was the last of his line, he had Hinata in front with the byakugan searching for other teams, Choji in the middle to support the front and the back, and he was just thinking. 'I should find Arai, but this forest's too big... I don't even know where he began... But passing this exam without his help will be too troublesome... If he fells our chakra, or whatever it is he does, he'll come to us... So if we get close to the tower, we can set ambushes and wait for him there, if he doesn't show... five days are enough to get a Heaven Scroll, if he does show he can help me, the two of us are probably enough to take a genin team... But what if we are attacked... The last time that happened Hinata froze up and Choji lasted a few minutes... And we don't have Kurenai-sensei here... I like them, but they're horrible shinobi...'<p>

"Shi-Shikamaru-san." normally Hinata's voice was so low it was annoying but here it was best to talk like that "The-There a-are two teams f-fi-fighting ahead of us... One is Sasuke-san's and the o-other is a team from A-Ame (Rain), they both have Earth Scrolls..."

"Both?" smirked Shikamaru "Who's carrying it? For both teams." he clarified, knowing Hinata expected them to help the other Konoha genin.

"Ah... Sa-Sasuke-san a-and the Ame nin with the cloak." she looked at her feet, ever since she was put in a team with the Nara heir she start feeling a little scared of him, a lot less then Naruto-san, but still. He was kind of ruthless.

"Ok, I want Hinata three feet behind me, keep your eyes on other teams, Choji beside her, cover my back and don't even think about attacking" the Akimichi had started trying to prove himself after Shikamaru and Kurenai had to do all the fighting in their first C-rank "I'll handle this."

When he got in a position where he could see the clearing he couldn't help but smile, there was a huge tree just outside it, it's shadow covered almost all of the clearing. Sasuke was fighting two Ame genin, a very short one, with a black cloak that didn't let you see anything but his face, which was covered by a breather and his hitai-ate, that was in front of his eyes, and another one but Shikamaru couldn't care less about him. Shino and Sakura were fighting another one, but he was also not important.

Heihou took a rat seal and whispered "Kagemane no Jutsu. (Shadow Imitation Technique.)" hiding his shadow in the tree's he easily captured the cloaked Ame nin, and took of running, back where they came from, leaving the Uchiha to taunt the other Ame nin about how only one of them had a brain, and hopefully hold them off.

"Choji! Knock him out!" ordered Shikamaru, after running for a while with his jutsu activated he was a lot more annoyed then tired, but he was still tired. The Ame nin, that had been cursing for while went silent and fell face first "Hinata, grab the Scroll, you know where it is."

The girl nodded and did what she was told "Good, now let's go, the sooner we get to the tower, the sooner we can rest."

* * *

><p>Gaara was not a sensor type, so he had to focus a lot to look for chakra signatures while he ran, but he wanted to find Kurama or Nii, hopefully both, and that focus coupled with Temari's questioning on how he knew Kurama, and she wouldn't shut up because she was no longer afraid of him, and Shukaku's rants about how he didn't need their help were giving him a headache 'I don't want help! I want to help them!'.<p>

But, thankfully, before he could snap he found Yugito, without another word he headed towards her, knowing his siblings would follow. When he arrive he saw her team being attacked by two Iwa squads "Nii! Do you want help?".

"Suna nin want to help us? What if we accept and work well together? And our villages discover and encourage our entire generation to do the same? And what if when we are adults we decide to form an alliance between our villages? And the other three great villages fear us and band together to destroy us?" wondered Yugito's male teammate, causing everyone to stare at him.

"Don't worry. I'm here to help Nii, not Kumo." clarified the Jinchuriki.

"Thanks Gaara!" smiled Yugito, he liked her smile.

When the Iwa genin realized they had more enemies they began to move, well, four of them did, the other two were the closest to the Suna genin and were already trapped in sand "Sabaku Soso. (Sand Waterfall Funeral.)", the sand around them contracted and the pressure crushed them.

"Raiton: Raigeki no Yoroi! (Lightning Release: Lightning Strike Armor!)" Yugito pounced one of the Iwa genin and held on until he smelled like burned flesh, another moved to strike her, but then reached for his own neck, which was bleeding, Yugito smiled to her sister, who was standing behind her.

The last two panicked and tried to run, one was caught by Gaara's sand and the other also received a hug from Yugito.

"I can see why they had to team up. That was sad." said Yugito's sister, staring at the still dying genin at her feet.

"They both had Earth Scrolls." called Gaara's male teammate.

"Do you need one?" asked the blond Jinchuriki.

"Yes." replied Gaara, she was serious, what did he have to do to make her smile?

"Good, then we both have all the scrolls we need. Should we go to the tower together?" she gave a small smile.

"I don't think it's a good..." started Temari, but Gaara cut her off.

"I would like that, but let's keep an eye out for Kurama." both his siblings looked at him as if he had sprouted another head.

"Ok, and since we're going together you should know: This is my sister, Samui, and my teammate Omoi" she pointed at them.

Gaara nodded, but he didn't really care "My brother's name is Kankuro and my sister is Temari." no gestures "Shall we?"

She smiled, nodded and they left.

* * *

><p>The exam started two days ago, they had fought off three teams, but didn't manage to get any of their scrolls. Currently they were resting at Kurama's "house", he had set so many traps there over the years that there was absolutely no danger if they stayed inside.<p>

"Wow, Naruto-kun, how do you take such good care of your things while living here?" asked Kegawa-chan, he had clothes, scrolls, tools and even a mirror, all in perfect condition.

"When I bought my first clothes with Inu-nee-chan I realized I really like having things." he looked at a way-too-small shirt she was holding "I don't let any harm come to what I like."

Both girls smiled at this, he made no secret that he liked them... Both... The smiles became a little smaller.

"There's someone trying to get past my traps?" kami some people are stupid.

"Ah! It's Forehead!" Cried Ino "She's caring the teme!"

Kurama walked, he wasn't going to waste his traps with her, she wasn't even worthy of nickname "I would stop if I were you. You won't survive another step".

"Naruto! You have to help! Some snake-guy bit Sasuke-kun!" she cried ignoring his warning, taking that extra step and a kunai to the shoulder.

"Told you not to do it... Wait, the three hiding behind her come out, I want to talk to you." a few seconds of silence, except for Sakura's crying, then three genin with Oto hitai-ates appeared.

"You're good and since you found me I'll be honest, we have no business with you, just the Uchiha." said a mummy with a fur coat "We won't mess with you if you let us have him."

"I know how I can decide." then Kurama turned to Sakura "Where's Unzari-san (Boring-san)? You're other teammate?"

"I-I can only carry one of them and I couldn't leave Sasuke-kun!" she finish determined, like she did nothing wrong.

"So instead of protecting them both where you were, you left Unzari-san to the wolfs so that Fundo had a bigger chance." he nodded "I wouldn't do something like that in my team because I can't lose either of them, but I would act the same way if it was between you and either of them. Manako-chan give me a kunai, please."

He disliked weapons, his body was more then enough, but fighting three genin was a little too much for him. He smirked, and threw it, the weapons pierced the tree behind the mummy's teammates.

"Ha! You su..." start that one of them but before he could finish the three exploded killing the teen, and burning the girl's entire arm.

"Finish her off!" he called and ran towards the remaining Oto nin, he could smell the chakra entering the nin's metal gloves, when the genin swung he dived low, to dodge whatever it would launch, shame it didn't launch anything, it just gave Kurama a massive headache, a horrible vertigo and threatened to make him lose his lunch. But it wasn't worse then his last hang over. He put his palms together 'Niban Bibu! (Second Tail)' and took his Katon form and started launching countless Gokakyu, making the Oto nin dodge, jump and roll just to stay alive.

"Fuck! You're going to burn the whole forest!" screamed the man, he couldn't get close, the fire balls were too big, he couldn't dodge them at close range, so he would have to wait until the idiot wasted all of his chakra.

"Oh, I'm not going to harm my forest, the only thing that's going to burn is you." he smiled at the genin, before launching more and more of his jutsu.

'How can he use this many jutsu! He must have sent twenty already! We're genin dammit! Wait! Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!' the Oto nin noticed that he had no way out, the fire surrounding him was short enough to jump over, but it was to wide to jump across, the bastard wasn't that big of an idiot 'But he forgot the trees' he jumped and used chakra to glue himself to the tree behind him, far away from the fire.

That's when the tree exploded, the Oto nin was sent spinning through the air, when he had a chance to look behind him he saw his legs going in different directions, when he was turned forward he just saw fire.

Kurama turned away from the screams of the genin and dismissed the tail, he walked back to his girls to see a slightly disoriented Manako-chan and a Kegawa-chan with blood all over her hair. He turned to Sakura "Which Scroll do you have?"

She looked at him shocked "You're not planning on..." but was cut off.

"Taking it?" he smiled "Depends on which one it is. Tell me."

She stiffened at the command and took an Earth Scroll from Sasuke's pocket, Kurama noticed some weird tattoo on the Uchiha's shoulder.

"Thank you" he smiled, taking the scroll "Let's go girls, and... You, don't try to enter my tree, you will die."

He turned to his team "Manako-chan, can you walk?"

Ino was already fine, so of course she answered "No, I still don't fell well..."

The Kyuubi just smiled "Then I'll carry you, we have no time to lose."


	12. Chapter 12

Kyuubi no Yoko: The Second

Chapter 12: Just a little too far

AN: Ok. A whole lot of things. First I'm really sorry about the sudden almost hiatus thing I did. I won't bother with excuses they won't help. I will just guarantee that I will do my very best so that it doesn't happen again.

About Itachi's age. I meant to say that he was two years older then canon-Itachi, so he became an ANBU when Kurama was six and moved into the forest of death.

There were two nicknames for Shino in the last chapter because I'm a moron. It's already fixed in the list below.

So there were a lot of fights in this chapter so I tried to do something different with them. A few are move by move. Some are just overviews and others actually focus on the people watching rather then the match. Let me know what you guys thing about that. Not that this kind of thing happens often but...

And don't worry, if you are one of the people that were worried about this, about the akatzuki characters. Just because the organization is not there doesn't mean they are all dead. Next chapter one of them is even mentioned!

Nicknames:

Neko-aniki = Uchiha Itachi

Inu-nee-chan = Inuzuka Hana

Manako-chan = Yamanaka Ino

Heihou = Nara Shikamaru

Kegawa-chan = Oonishi Noriko

Fundo = Uchiha Sasuke

Niku-kun = Akimichi Choji

Mugon-san = Hyuga Hinata

Tsumeato-sensei = Umino Iruka

Subaku-san = Aburame Shino

Kemuri-jii-san = Hiruzen Sarutobi

Bunshin-senpai = Rock Lee

Jiman-senpai = Hyuga Neji

Nee-chan-senpai = Tenten

Dokuji-sensei = Maito Gai

Arai = Uzumaki Naruto (Shikamaru)

Ai = Sabaku no Gaara

Kumo = Nii Yugito

Ooki-san = Morino Ibiki

Chi-chan = Mitarashi Anko

Rikoteki-chan = Sakura Haruno

Nevertheless, disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of it's original characters. Anything other then that can be used without asking for permission, but I would like if you let people know where you got the idea.

Well, shall we?

Anko was in a bad mood, sure, when she meet up with Iruka and he told her that Naru-chan had cleared the forest she was ecstatic. So she rushed to meet her new friend, just to see him making out with some blondie! She had assumed he didn't have any other friends, like her. He lives in the woods, dammit! Now he has not only friends but a little girlfriend? Fine, she didn't need him either, so she blasted him, unconsciously, with enough killing intent to give a normal genin a heart attack and stormed off.

That's when she bumped into Hana.

"Hana? What are you doing here?" there weren't supposed to be any jonin sensei here, not at the area of the tower that was housing the genin.

"Ah, uh, I'm here to... You see, I... I wanted to check if Naru-chan is alright." she admitted "Oh! And the rest of my team."

Anko frowned 'Naru-chan?' "Well he's back there trying to eat some blondie's face."

Hana was surprised by the venom in Anko's voice "Do you know Naru-chan?"

"Uh, yeah, I met the gaki a couple of weeks ago" she waved off, her mood seemed to get a lot better with that memory.

"I trust you weren't doing anything weird with MY Naru-chan." she scowled at the woman, she had heard a lot of rumors about Mitarashi Anko, and while she didn't put much stock in rumors, the woman was half-naked.

"Haha! Don't worry, we just talked and tried to kill each other!" she laughed while walking away, she was almost skipping now, did she have multiple personalities?

* * *

><p>Back with Kurama, he was tucking in Manako-chan. When he felt the killing intent he searched but couldn't find the source. When he tried to get back to what he was doing he noticed that when he broke contact she fainted...<p>

Leaving the room the blond heard some calling him, by his real name.

He turned to see Ai walking towards him "Kurama, can I talk to you? In private."

"Sure, lead the way." he smiled. The redhead nodded and walked away, leading the Kyuubi to the room he was given.

"First I need to thank you, my friend. the week before the exam started was easily the best one of my life." he smiled "Without mothe... Shukaku's voice in my head all the time I was able to apologize and get to know my siblings! I was able to sleep and hold an actual conversation! Not to mention that I haven't felt the need to prove my existence at all, but that also has to do with Nii and my sister."

Kurama just grinned and waited, not for long because Ai seemed eager to talk "This has only steeled my resolve. I will follow you where ever you go, you are my first friend and you can keep me sane. I also think that my sister might come with us, she seems to hate our father almost as much as I do and she has been fighting a lot with my brother, usually over me. He hasn't forgiven me. And now that he knows I won't kill him just because I'm angry, he doesn't hide the fact that he hates me. It's a shame, but it doesn't matter, I have Nii, you and Temari."

"It's good to see that things are working out for you Ai." he patted his friend on the back, Shukaku didn't dare try to stop him.

"I wish I could touch other people as well..." the Jinchuriki sighed "Temari tried to hug me, only to be pushed back by the sand."

"Just order him to let her come close." answered the biju "He'll obey if he knows what's good for him."

"Really? So I could hug Temari and Nii?" he asked hopeful.

"Could? No, you should. Hugging is really nice." Kurama thought of his girls. And while distracted almost fell back, when Ai... Hugged him?

Hugging a guy was weird, it wasn't soft at all and didn't smell nearly as nice. But Ai was his friend so...

"It's not that good." complained the red head, letting go.

"That's because were both guys. Girls are much better targets." explained the Kyuubi.

"Uh... Then I'll try to find Temari and Nii..." He answered before using Shunshin and disappearing.

'I hope Kumo never had a problem with perverts' thought Kurama, while leaving the room.

* * *

><p>'Kurama was right, hugging a girl is really nice.' thought Gaara, heading towards Yugito's room, his sister had been warm, smelled nice and kept running her hand through his hair. Unfortunately he was a little short, so his face had ended up in her... Assets. And he didn't really fell comfortable with that, she was his sister after all.<p>

"Nii." he called, suddenly feeling nervous after entering the room even if he had knocked and been told to come in "Are you busy?"

Yugito and her team weren't doing anything really, well the guy seemed to be trying to convince them to play cards but the girls didn't seem to be giving him much attention. She smiled when she saw him "Nope, what brings you here Gaara?"

And all of the sudden he couldn't ask for his hug. The redhead felt his face warm up, he probably had a blush hidden behind his sand armor. He took a deep breath and offered his hand, which she stared at puzzled "I have found a way to keep Shukaku from attacking. I would like to... Shake your hand..."

Her smile returned, bigger then before, but when she reached for Gaara's hand, it was no longer there. Instead four of his fingers were touching her cheek and his thumb was felling her lips. In his face a small, but warm smile. Yugito blushed but couldn't move away. After a few seconds the red head seemed to realize just what he did, his eyes widened and he pulled his hand back.

"I-I... You're smile... It-It..." that's when he stopped took a deep breath, and when the girl thought he was going to continue, he used Shunshin and disappeared.

"Oh, man! What if he likes you? And what if you fall in love with him? And if what if the two of you want to get married but Raikage-sama doesn't let you? And what if Kazekage-sama demands that his son gets to marry the woman he wants? And what if you two start a war? And..." the sisters ignored their teammate.

And when Samui saw the look on her sister's face, who could only stare at were the other Jinchuriki once stood and touch her face where his hand had been. Making a quick decision, the kind she was known for, Samui whispered so Omoi wouldn't hear "I've changed my mind. Go tell the fox we'll follow him".

Yugito's eyes widened, her grin threatening to split her face in two. She hugged her sister, before dashing away.

* * *

><p>"So I just told Choji to knock him out, and we ran all the way here." explained Shikamaru.<p>

"Haha! Man, I don't think their going to pass." laughed Kurama.

"Why not? It's not like I took their scroll... What did you do?" Heihou raised one eyebrow, they were standing in what looked like an underground arena, waiting for the five days to end and the next phase of the exam to be announced.

"YOU!" roared Sasuke, his clothes ragged and dirty, from the chambers entrance and pointing straight at Kurama.

"Now, now, Fundo." smiled the Kyuubi "What happens in the forest, stays in the forest."

The Uchiha charged straight at the blond, only to be stopped by sick-looking man, wearing a bandana and a normal chunin attire, who appeared in front of him.

"Get out of my way!" demanded the Uchiha, trying to side step the man.

"No (cough). And if you try to harm another competitor again I will disqualify you." glared the chunin.

"Ha! You don't have the guts nor the power to stand up to an Uchi..." but he was cut off, when Kakashi appeared behind him and pulled the neck of his shirt.

"Sasuke. If you don't quit embarrassing both of us right now, you I'll show you the Sennen Goroshi (One Thousand Years of Death) again. In front of all this nice people. Do you want that, Sasuke?" asked Kakashi with a disturbingly sweet voice.

The boy started sweating and shaking his head, while Shino actually shivered. Leaving everyone to wonder what on earth they were talking about.

That's when the sick-looking man appeared in front of the gathered genin, and Kakashi used Shunshin to disappear "Congratulations to you all for completing the second stage of the chunin exams(cough)(cough). You have all qualified for the third round (cough), my name is Gekko Hayate and I will be the proctor for that last round. Unfortunately since a lot of important people (cough) come to watch that last round, including (cough) Daimyos, we can't have that round lasting too long. The last round is a tournament, so we'll be conducting (cough) preliminaries to make sure there aren't too many fights in the third round. Any questions?"

Shikamaru raised his hand "If the last round is a tournament, does that mean that only one of us is going to become a chunin?"

"No, there will be several judges that (cough) will watch the fights and they will help your Kage in the decision of who (cough)(cough) becomes chunin. Winning only means that you have more chances to impress those judges. Anything else?"

"When do the preliminaries start?" asked Sakura, not bothering to raise her hand, just yelling.

"Right now." answered the chunin, completely unsympathetic to the fact that the girl had obviously not gotten any rest in days. Might come from the fact that he looked like he could barely stand as well or from the stunt Sasuke pulled "The names (cough) of the fighters will appear in the screen behind me, everyone else stays in the railings, along with your jonin sensei."

The screen rolled all the names a few times to stop at: Uzumaki Naruto Vs Hyuga Neji.

"Everybody (cough), except the fighters, please leave the arena (cough)." called Hayate, noticing that a lot of people from the Konoha genin, and even a Suna and a Kumo nin, wish the blond boy luck. But no one bothered talking to the Hyuga.

"You should give up, Naruto. You might be strong, but fate has already chosen you as the defeated for this match."declared Neji, taking the gentle fist stance and activating his byakugan.

"Maybe you're right, Jiman-senpai." smiled Kurama, but everyone who knew him was already expecting the jab that would follow that smile "Maybe our lives are already written on the stars. But tell me, senpai, who are you to read them?"

"What?" Neji narrowed his eyes, usually people would talk some nonsense about making their own fate before he defeated them.

"What makes you so sure fate chose YOU as the winner?" explained Kurama, not bothering to take anything that resembled a stance "Sure, you might be right and all my efforts useless. But maybe fate chose me, and you are just another obstacle in my path. Hell, maybe we're just here so that I'll defeat you and Fundo will see that pride comes before the fall" he smiled "But it doesn't matter does it? Fate has already chosen the winner, but we still have to find out!" he grinned and slapped his hands together 'Niban Bibu!' and took his Katon form.

"Begin!" called the proctor, and Neji charged at Kurama.

From where Hana was standing it was like watching Naru-chan's first day at the academy again. There was a prodigy from one of the most powerful clans on Konoha, using his clan style, and being completely unable to hit Kurama. The blond was also, once again, jumping and dodging randomly.

"You really are good, Naruto. But you are not good enough." that's when Neji sped up, and in a blur, struck both of Kurama's arms.

To Kurama it was like his veins were burning, the pain was so great that all he could do was keep himself from crying right there. But even worse, without chakra running through his arms, he couldn't move them! In one moment of desperation he unleashed all the killing intent he could muster, actually freezing Jiman-senpai in his tracks. He took advantage of that and pumped all the chakra he could muster into his arms, the pain disappeared and he could move them again.

When Neji got used to the killing intent his opponent was sending, he charged at the blond again. But this time the younger boy didn't dodge and sway, he ran, jumped and rolled away from Neji. All the while sending massive fireballs at him.

"That's a C-rank jutsu! How can he use it so many times? He's just a genin..." asked Kurenai, looking at Hana, but it was someone else who answered.

"Naruto-kun is awesome like that." Ino grinned smugly along with Noriko.

And when Kurenai looked at Hana "I agree with her." along with supportive barks from the Haimaru Brothers. Causing most jonin present, except Kakashi and Anko, to sweat drop.

Back at the arena one of the Gokakyu was about to hit Neji, giving the boy no time to dodge "Hakkesho Kaiten! (Eight Trigrams Palms Revolving Heaven!)" he called, spinning and creating a blue dome of chakra. The rotation put out the fire, revealing a slightly burned Hyuga, with a good amount of scorch marks on his clothes and skin. His hair was oddly spotless.

"That was very impressive, Jiman-senpai." smiled Kurama "But not good enough." he repeated Neji's words and clapped his together 'Go Bibu!', he surrounded himself with green chakra, forming a tail behind him and what looked like green, transparent, blades in his hands.

"Now that one I'll be happy to explain." claimed Hana, gaining everyone's attention "You see, a medic jutsu is done by transforming your chakra into medical chakra and using it to gain entrance to your targets body. So if Naru-chan copies medical chakra, he can use medical jutsu without bothering with the whole 'transform your chakra' thing. Those are Chakura no Mesu (Chakra Scalpel), by the way."

All eyes turned to see a fuming, and smoking, Hyuga charging straight at Kurama, who just smirked and turned his back to his opponent. Instead of being weary of any tricks, Neji lost the remaining of his cool and continued running. When he was about to hit Kurama they both exploded into clouds of smoke, changing positions. With the Hyuga's back to him, Kurama sliced both of his shoulders, cutting through muscle and tendons.

"I hope you enjoyed this as much as I did, Jiman-senpai." smiled Kurama, only for the boy to try to kick him.

It was a very sad sight. The gentle fist had almost no kicks so Neji just tried the same three weak and slow kicks over and over. Almost falling a few times because he couldn't use his arms to balance himself. Kurama just sliced Neji's legs, causing the boy to fall flat on his face. No one said anything, for a while all that was heard were Neji's grunts.

"Are you going you declare me the winner or do I have to kill him?" asked Kurama "Because I really don't want to, but if I have to..." he trailed off, approaching the fallen Hyuga.

"That's quite enough!" called the proctor "Winner: Uzumaki Naruto. Doctors!"

Kurama left the arena and climbed the stairs to where the other genin were. On the way to his team he received nods and smirks from Heihou, Ai, Kumo and Anko, and congratulations from Niku-kun, Bunshin-senpai and Nee-chan-senpai. When he got to his team he received a peck on the cheek from both his teammates and his sensei, causing every man in the arena to try to kill him with glares, except for Heihou and Ai.

Samui stared at the blond intensely 'A C-Rank Jutsu and Chakura no Mesu? That's it? Are you really stronger then Nee-chan?', she thought, almost missing the announcement of the next match: Sabaku no Temari Vs Sabaku no Kankuro.

* * *

><p>Gaara took a step back so he could see both of his siblings "Good luck, both of you." Temari thanked him, while Kankuro just walked down the stairs only to look up and see his sister gliding down, sited on her fan.<p>

"Are both fighters ready?" asked Hayate, receiving a nod from each "Then begin!"

Kankuro unwrapped his puppet as fast as he could, knowing it was no use hiding it from Temari. He was forced to keep his puppet close so that it, or it's strings, weren't cut by his sister's Futon (Wind) jutsu and he was also unable to use poisons, smoke bombs, or projectiles because she would just send them back.

After a while of dodging Kankuro reveled his secret weapons when fighting someone like Temari. His pupped opened it's chest and some kind of metal shield unfolded itself from inside the doll, allowing him to run straight through his sister's wind blasts, knowing she had no way of defending herself if he got closer.

Shame he was wrong, and when he tried to have his puppet run her through with it's hidden blades, she just raised her fan and smashed it, along with it's metal shield. The blond girl smacked it a couple more times, to make sure all pieces and traps were broken, and smirked at her brother.

Kankuro just raised his hands and cried "I surrender!" before his sister could do anything.

"Very well." called the proctor "Winner: Sabaku no Temari."

Temari just huffed, smirked again and climbed back to where her little brother was watching. When they arrived Gaara congratulated them both. Temari smiled and Kankuro ignored him.

And so the next match was announced, it was Tenten against Sakura.

* * *

><p>"Yeah... That's going to be fast..." nodded Kurama, with his eyes closed and his arms crossed.<p>

His entire team, and Kakashi's, copied him. But Sakura didn't seem to notice this. She was so glad that she wasn't going to fight anyone scary that she just ran down to the arena.

"Are both (cough) fighters ready?" asked the proctor, two nods and "Begin!"

Tenten jumped back and launched two kunai against her opponent. Sakura was barely able to crouch in time but she wasn't hurt. Until Tenten launched more weapons.

Bending one's legs might be fast but the opposite is not. Add to the fact that Tenten threw five shuriken spread wide and Sakura couldn't roll to the sides, so she tried to jump. Gaining a piece of metal in her foot for the effort.

The force of the shuriken was enough to take care of her balance and Sakura was forced to land on only one of her legs. The result was obvious. Forehead to the floor. And Kakashi doing his best to be as small and irrelevant as possible, hiding from the other jonin.

"Is... Is it over?" asked Noriko. Looking around she could see a lot of people with small smiles or attempting to swallow their fists to keep from laughing. Of course Kurama and Shikamaru were rolling on the floor clutching their stomachs.

Nothing happened for a few seconds until "Uh... 1... 2... (cough) 3... Winner: Tenten." announced Hayate.

It wasn't until Tenten was already with and congratulated by her team that Kakashi realized that his team had no intention of bringing Sakura up there. And neither did he.

"Hayate, call the medics, she might have a concussion or something..." said the one eyed jonin.

After Sakura was removed from the arena the next fight was announced: Rock Lee vs Omoi.

Now that fight was a lot more impressive then the last. Surprisingly, to the people that didn't know the combatants, there was no jutsu in it. Omoi proved himself very skilled with his katana and Lee did the same with his fists.

"Who do you think will win, Naruto-kun?" asked Ino.

"Bunshin-senpai." smiled Kurama.

"Why?" this time it was Noriko.

"He's just sweating a lot less."

That was true. Ten minutes into the fight and Omoi was sweating bullets. Though most people were just impressed that he was still standing. Even if neither fighter had gotten a true, good, strike on the other they had been running, jumping, rolling and whatever they had to do without stopping or slowing down.

It all came to an end when Lee grabbed one of Omoi's wrists and twisted it, making the boy let go of his sword. Then the Konoha genin proceeded to make mince meat out of the sword-less swordsman.

"Stop! Winner: Rock Lee!" ordered Hayate when it was getting a little too ugly.

Lee did so and bowed to his downed opponent. Then he smiled and ran towards his sensei. Kurama tuned their antics out because no matter how much that reminded him of himself and Neko-aniki, Gai was getting on his nerves. The next match was Samui and Hinata. One he paid a lot of attention to, he was interested in the Kumo genin for a while now.

* * *

><p>Samui just sighed as she walked towards the arena, shaking her head to ignore the grin. Yes, THE grin. Her sister has been showing it since yesterday. At least that means Samui would probably not regret her decision, unless every single thing went to hell.<p>

Looking back at the stands she noticed a pair of red eyes staring at her. The eyes were full of amusement, dares and challenges. She had seen that look before. A lot of pride in the looker and a lot of expectations on the watcher, her sister must have said something to him and now the Kyuubi no Yoko was interested in her? Fine, he wasn't bad looking, but he would have to give up those bitches of his. Samui didn't like to share.

Samui easily ignored the watching biju and focused on her opponent, and to be honest she was a little disappointed. The girl was actually shaking, was she that scary? No, the Hyuga kept trowing glances at the audience. Did she have stage fright? The Konoha genin activated her byakugan and took a deep breath.

"Begin!"

Samui charged at the other genin and drew her tanto in a wide arch. Hinata was only able to avoid being cut by a few centimeters and responded with a palm strike. The Kumo nin just feinted back and drove a kunai into her opponent's palm. When the Hyuga steeped back Samui started running through hand seals.

"Raiton: Raikyu! (Lightning Release: Lightning Ball!)"

A small ball of lightning appeared in her palm but instead of launching it Samui just continued to gather chakra in it. The blond genin just kept attacking and gathering chakra at the Raikyu until she started losing control of it.

That's when she smirked and shot the ball between her and her opponent. Everyone, except for Hinata, saw the ball making a small hole on the ground. The Hyuga heiress saw a blinding flash of chakra and tried to shield her eyes with her hands. Samui just kneed her in the stomach and hit the back of her neck with the pommel of her tanto, effectively knocking her out.

"Winner (cough) Samui!" called Hayate.

The blond genin allowed herself a small smile while getting back to her team. But she only had time for a quick 'congratulations' from her sister since Yugito was called for the next match. She would be fighting Aburame Shino.

* * *

><p>"Yo, Ai."<p>

Gaara turned to see the Kyuubi approaching his team.

"Kurama."

"Have you ever seen Kumo fight?" he asked, ignoring the shocked look in Kankuro's face and the knowing one in Temari's.

"Yes. We fought together in your forest." as much as he liked her smile, Gaara couldn't keep his eyes from her behind while Yugito walked down towards the arena.

"Her opponent can use his bugs to absorb someone's chakra. He can also make clones with them. He sucks at every other aspect of being a shinobi. Taijutsu, Genjutsu, Weapons... You name it."

Gaara just nodded, eyes one Yugito at all times.

"Well? Is she going to win?" the fox started poking him on the shoulder. Much to the surprise of his team, though a little less for Temari, Gaara didn't seem to mind.

"Do the bugs have to touch her?" he asked as the match started.

"Yes."

"Then she has already won. Look." he pointed at the arena.

Kurama watched her run through a few hand seals and shout "Raiton: Raigeki no Yoroi!". He saw her chakra turn into lightning and creating a small field just above her skin. A couple of insects that were hidden in her clothes caught fire.

"I wonder if Subaku-san is going to forfeit." mussed Kurama.

"If he does not, he's going to die. I have seen her use that jutsu before and it works."

It looked like Shino decided that a genin couldn't keep a jutsu like that going for long so he didn't give up. During the first five minutes it was interesting to see an calm and collected Aburame running, jumping, rolling and sliding around trying to survive. That's when Yugito decided that the show had gone for long enough. At first it had been fun, then it became annoying and now she was angry. All thoughts of holding back and hiding her strength forgotten, the Kumo genin just created ten Raiton Bunshin (Lightning Clones) who proceeded to surround Shino. One of them grabbed him and shocked the day lights out of him.

"That was... Simple..." commented Kurama, looking at the arena.

"It was effective." defended Gaara.

"I guess love really is b..." started Kurama but when he saw the next match he just left.

"Where's he going?" Temari asked her brother.

"He is going to threaten a friend of his." he answered while debating if he should go congratulated Yugito.

"Why?"

"Because the friend is fighting one of his mates." by then Gaara was already heading towards the Yugito and her sister.

"One of? Mates?"

Now that was problem. Temari wasn't stupid so she quickly realized that this Uzumaki Naruto, no clue why Gaara calls him Kurama but then again the guy calls him 'Ai', was the reason why Gaara wasn't a psychopath anymore. And she was really grateful. But the problems related to her 'new' baby brother were: one, he crushing on some foreign shinobi. Two, the girl didn't look bothered by this at all, she was blushing right now probably because Gaara was congratulating her. Three, they were in a competition where he might have to fight her. And four, he had only one friend so he would obviously go to him for dating advice, and apparently the guy had more then one MATE.

* * *

><p>Nara Shikamaru wasn't a happy person, right now. Arai fought, and defeated, Neji Hyuga, last year's Rookie of the Year and prodigy of the Hyuga clan. Now Shikamaru wasn't going to let himself fall behind. He was hoping to fight the Uchiha, Rookie of their year, and kick Arai's ass in the tournament later. But no, he got himself a weak opponent and he couldn't even go for the over kill because she was his best friend's girl.<p>

"Dammit." he mumbled after the proctor called the start of the match.

That's when his opponent started running through hand seals.

"Hea Hebi!" called Noriko.

Her already long hair started growing. When it finished it looked like a snake ready to strike, it even had two brown fangs! When it did strike the Nara heir rolled out of the way 'Maybe she's not that bad' he though.

But unfortunately she wasn't very creative, and that's a fatal flaw against a Nara. She tried chasing Shikamaru around but he was just a little faster then her. He created four simple Bunshin and made them all stand at the same place. Since they weren't solid he stood at the same place and the five Shikamarus scattered.

Knowing she would probably chose the wrong one, Noriko used the Hari Jizo jutsu and hid. Because that worked so well last time. Shikamaru didn't miss a beat. He jumped behind her and captured her with the Kagemane no Jutsu. He separated her hands from the seal and she couldn't keep the technique any longer.

Standing behind her the Nara heir just grabbed a kunai from his weapon pouch, while Noriko just reached for something on her right shoulder that wasn't there, and put it against her neck, with the girl doing the same but with nothing in front of her or in her hands.

"So? Did I win?" he asked the proctor.

"Winner: Nara Shikamaru!"

* * *

><p>The next fight was Ino versus Gaara. Kurama gave her the same advice before the match he gave Noriko and the same consolation after. The advice was "Don't go down there. You'll just humiliate yourself.". The consolation was "I told you so." and a smile, not a mocking one, but still...<p>

Needless to say both girls were now depressed. They had gone down there to show Kurama that they were strong too. And what better way to do it then by defeating the two of the people that according to him they had no chance of beating? Both fights were disasters. Noriko at least managed to get Shikamaru to use jutsu. Gaara just caught Ino with his sand by her foot and lifted her, upside down, and stared at the proctor until he was declared the winner.

"I still don't think you should do this, Choji." called Shikamaru.

But his teammate, and friend, was too focused in his match. He was fighting Uchiha Sasuke after all.

"How is it going to go?" Kurama asked his friend.

Shikamaru shook his head "Choji's going to put up a fight but that's just 'cause the Uchiha is not going to take him seriously."

Hinata, already wake fom her match, really wanted to speak out for Choji, he was her teammate after all and he had been improving a lot since their first C-Rank, but she could barely talk to the Nara heir. There was no chance she was going to argue against him AND Kurama.

The match started like what was expected.

"The sidekick of the third place! Why don't you save some face and give up, fat ass?" taunted the Uchiha

Choji just turned red, screamed "Bubun Baika no Jutsu! (Partial Multi-Size Technique!) and slammed a Sasuke with a giant fist.

"When did he learn that?" asked Shikamaru raising an eyebrow.

"C-Choji-kun has been w-working re-realy hard since..." whispered Hinata, but not loud enough for Shikamaru and Kurama listen.

"You're a horrible teammate Heihou." smiled Kurama, waiting for the smoke from Choji's attack to clear.

"True. But it's not going to change the winner."

As soon as he said that Choji felt someone pocking him on the shoulder. He turned around to meet a fist.

"When did he get there?" wondered the Nara heir.

"He twirled around Choji's fist. Then he took advantage of the blind spot a giant arm causes and just ran." explained the Kyubi.

"How do you know? We can't see behind his arm from here."

"It's what I would have done, back when I was that slow." lied Kurama with smirk, there were a lot of ears around that didn't need to know the extent of his chakra sensing abilities.

"Sasuke-kun's not slow!"

A few grumbles were all the welcome that Sakura Haruno received when she woke up, on the floor next to her sensei.

"You want fast, second place? I'll give you fast!" Sasuke was fuming now.

"Congratulations Rikoteki-chan (Selfish-chan). You just made your boyfriend lose his cool in the middle of a fight." pointed out Kurama.

And sure enough the next giant fist caught the completely distracted yelling Uchiha and launched him into the wall. Not that Sakura noticed, she was too busy blushing at being called Sasuke's girlfriend. The girl didn't even noticed what he called her.

Sasuke ran towards Choji and dodge the giant fist again. He kicked the other genin once in the stomach and once in the head. With the Akimich heir down the Uchiha heir started speakin.

While Sasuke proceeded to explain the difference between trash like Choji and an elite like him a sudden realization hit Shikamaru.

"No giant fireball." he commented.

"What?" asked Kurama.

"Uchiha is not a very creative guy. Every time he fights he starts with that fireball jutsu, or at least he uses it as soon as he can."

"Want to know why?" whispered Kurama, placing his forearms in the railing in front of them, leaning on it.

"Yes." answered Shikamaru, while copying the position, and making sure nobody was close enough to listen.

That's when Kurama's elbow touched his.

'Don't react. Jonin have good enough chakra control to enhance their senses with it, this is an Yamanaka Jutsu Manako-chan taught me. You can answer.'

'Why so much secrecy?' thought Shikamaru.

'Because I don't want to explain to anyone how I know this.' explained the blond.

'Fox thing, huh?'

'Yes. Now the reason Fundo isn't lobbing fireballs is because there's a seal on his shoulder reacting to his chakra. If he uses chakra that seal will probably do what ever it's supposed to.'

That's when he leaned back against the wall behind them and said "Maybe he forgot how? He was never that smart."

Before Shikamaru could make a jab along the lines of "Neither were you" Haruno brought herself back into the conversation.

"Sasuke-kun's a thousand times smarter then you!" she would have taken a swipe at him but she still remembered their encounter in the Forest of Death. She was only talking because they were surrounded by jonin.

But the two genin weren't paying any attention to her. Things in the arena were going from bad to worse. Choji was, for all intents and purposes, down. He just refused to admit it. The boy was bloodied from head to toe and that's when it happened. Sasuke called Shikamaru third place again and Choji, with his lips cracked and his teeth red, told him he was the only person stupid enough to believe he was better then the Nara prodigy and Kurama.

That's when Sasuke snapped. In a moment he knocked Choji off his feat and kicked him in the air. The Akimichi was left in the air with no control over his flight, Sasuke appeared behind him and kneed him in the back. Choji tried to back hand him but the Uchiha just used the blow as momentum and placed himself in front of the other genin.

That's when it truly began. Sasuke kicked, punched, kneed Choji over and over. Until the boy was just about to crash against the ground. So Sasuke spun in the air and elbowed him in the neck as soon as the boy reached the floor. There was a loud, horrible cracking noise followed by a shout "Shishi Rendan! (Lion Combo!)


	13. Chapter 13

Kyuubi no Yoko: The Second

Chapter 13: Follow me

AN: This chapter actually took a while to write because I had to make sure both reasons were believable. What reasons? Read and find out.

Oh yeah, someone said he/she was having trouble with the nicknames. Don't worry, as the story goes on Kurama will give up on most of them. It's not going to be fast and it's going to happen because he will realize that outside of Konoha he will interact with more then ten people. In this chapter he will have the first conversation where he has to use names to get his point across.

By the way, you let me worry about ages, ok? (You'll see why)

Kurama is a demon where is his blood lust? Nowhere (so far), I'm a huge believer in nurture instead of nature.

Kiba hasn't entered the story yet but he will and (you can guess will) he will want Kurama's head. But my Kiba isn't canon Kiba, so he really has a chance.

Last thing: Not everyone is going to abandon Konoha for Kurama. Why don't we make a game out of this? Guess by review or pm, If you get everyone right I'll let you know.

Nicknames:

Neko-aniki = Uchiha Itachi

Inu-nee-chan = Inuzuka Hana

Manako-chan = Yamanaka Ino

Heihou = Nara Shikamaru

Kegawa-chan = Oonishi Noriko

Fundo = Uchiha Sasuke

Niku-kun = Akimichi Choji

Mugon-san = Hyuga Hinata

Tsumeato-sensei = Umino Iruka

Subaku-san = Aburame Shino

Kemuri-jii-san = Hiruzen Sarutobi

Bunshin-senpai = Rock Lee

Jiman-senpai = Hyuga Neji

Nee-chan-senpai = Tenten

Dokuji-sensei = Maito Gai

Arai = Uzumaki Naruto (Shikamaru)

Ai = Sabaku no Gaara

Kumo = Nii Yugito

Ooki-san = Morino Ibiki

Chi-chan = Mitarashi Anko

Rikoteki-chan = Sakura Haruno

Retsu-san = Yuhi Kurenai

Muryoku-teme = Minato Namikaze

Chicchai-hime = Hyuga Hanabi

Nevertheless, disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of it's original characters. Anything other then that can be used without asking for permission, but I would like if you let people know where you got the idea.

Well, shall we?

There was silence for a single moment, then the medics ran towards Choji. The only sound coming from the ones watching the matches were a few gasps coming from the genin that hadn't seen death yet.

The medics didn't even bother looking at the Uchiha. The one on the lead simply pushed him away from the choking Akimichi, causing the winner of the match to fall unceremoniously on his ass. Not that he noticed, Sasuke's eyes were wide having just realized what he did. He had just killed someone because the guy pissed him off. He couldn't even remember what Choji had said to get him that angry. The only thing he could hear was something cracking again and again.

Kurama on the other hand had seen death before. He had killed before. He was also the only person there that wasn't staring at Choji. No, he was looking at Heihou. Kurama had already received some training on healing jutsu from Inu-nee-chan so he could proudly call himself a bellow average med-nin. So he knew what Choji's fate was. With all the strength and weight Fundo had put on that blow the wound would require surgery to fix, not a simple healing jutsu, and they had no time for that. Choji was already dead.

The reason Kurama was focusing on Heihou was because, and he would never say this to anyone, his best friend was somewhat predictable. Right now the Nara heir was going through every memory he had of Choji and picturing all the possible outcomes of this fight if he had helped the boy here and there. But Heihou was too smart to not find a way out so there were two possible reactions as soon as he was done with his thinking. He would lash out either at his sensei, for not making Choji stronger, or at Fundo. The first wouldn't be much of a problem, she would knock him out and when he woke up Kurama would be able to talk him out of doing something stupid. The later could end very badly. If he managed to hurt the last Uchiha loyal to Konoha there would be consequences, even for a clan heir.

Kurama closed his eyes for a moment and decided who his friend would blame, Fundo. The reason being the crush he harbored on his sensei for a while now. Not that Shikamaru would tell anyone but Kurama but he really cared for her. Hell, for a while now he the only three woman he could compare were his mother, Mugon-san and Retsu-san (Cold-san). It's no surprise who he chose.

He opened his eyes when he heard the med nin cut the flow of chakra going to Choji's neck. He remembered the rule: _"No medical shinobi shall ever stop medical treatment until the lives of their party members have come to an end". _So Kurama tensed and waited. Sure enough, when the medic announced the time of death, Heihou acted.

To fight the Nara heir was truly like playing shogi. The genin had several "pieces" and he combined them in different ways to create different results. So when Heihou slipped two of his fingers in the holes of two shuriken, the index and the ring fingers, Kurama knew what he would do and how to stop him. As soon the the weapons left Heihou's hands he jumped back intent on pushing himself from the wall behind him. But Kurama had climbed on the railing and, knowing the path of the shuriken, stretched his arm and let the weapons sink into the member.

The shock of hurting his friend made the Nara hesitate and that was all the Kyuubi needed. Pushing against the railing Kurama launched himself against his friend and pushed the other genin against the wall with his uninjured arm. Kurama used chakra to attach his hand and his elbow to the wall on either side of Heihou's neck.

"Heihou! Calm down!" he shouted but he using the jutsu Manako-chan had taught him he sent 'You'll never reach him with this many jonin around. If you want vengeance we have to find another way'.

"He just killed Choji!"

"There's nothing you can do about that!" 'Not right now. But one of us can meet him in the finals, unless you manage to get yourself kicked out of the tournament'

That's what calmed him down. There was a plan, there was a way. The Uchiha would pay even if he had to wait. The Nara was so focused on this that he didn't even notice how many flaws there were in that plan, but Kurama knew they could deal with those later.

"I'm sorry about your arm." said Shikamaru, a single tear on his eye.

"That's the only thing that's your fault." Kurama gave him a small smile, while plucking the weapons from the member and placing a hand, with a a green glow, on the first wound.

Everyone present was surprise with how "easily" the blond genin calmed his friend down. Most figured that with a friend dead the fact that he hurt another badly must have really hit the Nara. The others either knew about the technique or didn't think anything about it.

By then Choji's body was already being removed and Hayate called, looking like he ate something sour, "Winner: Uchiha."

All eyes turned to the winner, who had already regained most of his composure but was sweating a little.

"All (cough) winners, please join (cough) me."

And they did. After that they were told to pick a piece of paper from inside a box so that the fights of the next round could be decided. And since a small disaster is no fun at all, the second match was obviously Nara Shikamaru versus Uchiha Sasuke. The smile on the Nara heir's face didn't help anyone's sense of foreboding.

The first fight would be Kurama versus Samui, followed by Shikamaru's, then Lee and Yugito. The first round would end with Gaara versus Tenten. Temari would only fight in the second round. After everyone was told the finals would be held in a month, people started leaving in groups.

"Come on, we should talk" said Kurama, placing a hand on Heihou's shoulder.

"Actually, Uzumaki-san, I think it's best if I have a word with my student." Kurenai wasn't very please with the lack response to her from Shikamaru.

'Go. Don't do anything stupid and I'll ask Inu-nee-chan to take you to my tree after you're done.' thought Kurama.

"Ok" the Nara nodded to his teacher then turned to his friend "I'll see you later, Arai."

"Shikamaru-kun..." started Kurenai when she got her remaining male student back to the quarters where her team stayed between the second round of the exam and the preliminaries "Since competitors are allowed to kill during the exams the Uchiha won't be punished."

She knew her student was a calm person but the lack of any outburst still worried her.

"And if you kill him during your match neither will you. Legally." she was going to explain but he cut her off.

"I know. If I rid Konoha of the Sharingan I'll be dead within a week." he sighed, disappointed.

But Kurenai's sigh was one of relief. She truly didn't want him fighting the Uchiha and would have a month to convince him not to. But if she failed she knew she could convince Shikamaru that breaking an arm or two would be enough revenge. She didn't even consider that Kakashi's prodigy could beat her's.

Hatake Kakashi was a complicated guy. Anyone who knew him would tell him he was carefree most of the time but was still weighed down by a monstrous case of survivors guilt. He did survive his entire genin squad, including his sensei. And so he buried himself in his Icha Icha books and preached about teamwork and comrades to keep depression at bay.

What made him complicated was the fact that all that was wrong. No matter what he did he couldn't keep depression at bay. He believed himself to be an utter and complete failure. He didn't acknowledge his best friend until the boy was dying at his feet, he couldn't keep the promise he made to the boy and so his last teammate had died. When his sensei had sacrificed himself for the village, the Hokage allowed him to be the ANBU that protected his sensei's son. Except that when he heard a civilian trying to convince others to kill the boy he had immediately gotten rid of the man. Nothing was ever proved but the Hokage removed him from the job, there was such a thing as going to far.

After that he was forced to watch from afar and keep tabs on the boy through Itachi. When he tried to become the Naruto's sensei he was refused, he had to train the last loyal Uchiha. To make matters worse there was no way Naruto would be placed in the same team as Sasuke, they were both on top of the class. So now that he managed to awake his students Sharingan his plan was to get his team to chunin as soon as possible and try to get the council's permission to have Naruto as his apprentice. So he booted his team into the Chunin Exam as soon as he could. The result? The dammed Uchiha killed another Konoha shinobi.

Another face added to Kakashi's nightmares. And so he gave up, the council could demote him, fire him or arrest him. He wasn't cut out to be a teacher, the single most important lesson he didn't shut up about was ignored by his "prized" student in the blink of an eye. So he wouldn't teach. He wasn't sure if he was going to teach Sasuke the Chidori (One Thousand Birds) before the exam. Now? Now the Uchiha could go straight to hell, best the jutsu die with him then fall into the hands of people like Sasuke.

He didn't spare a second glance to his student, who was walking towards him. Kakashi used Shunshin and went to check on Shino, after that he would tell the Hokage his decision. Also, let Jiraya deal with the Ten no Juin (Curse Seal of Heaven).

"You don't have to worry, I will send someone to lead you all home."

Hana's eyes widened in response to a voice she hadn't heard years. And sure enough, when she and Shikamaru entered Kurama's tree she saw Uchiha Itachi. He was wearing a simple dark blue kimono with a white half-moon pattern on the bottom. Truth be told he really didn't look like a shinobi but he was definitely Itachi.

"Itachi? But-How? What are you doing here?" she asked.

"We are discussing Kurama's escape." he explained.

The question Hana was expecting from Shikamaru was "Who's Kurama?" but what he asked was "Escape? What's he talking about, Arai?"

The Kyuubi smiled "You're a smart guy, Heihou, I'm sure you know what it means."

"Yo-But- Kurama-kun! You can leave! I-I-"

"Why not? Inu-nee-chan, I don't want to stay here. I hate Konoha and I won't suffer through it any longer then I have to."

The Inuzuka looked positively heartbroken at this. Her Kurama-kun was leaving...

"When are you going?" Shikamaru wasn't looking much better and it was clear that the revenge for poor Choji was already forgotten, when compared to losing his best friend.

"In one month, and if you want to avenge Niku-kun you are going to have to come with me."

"What are talking about?"

"If you kill the last sharingan loyal to Konoha, you will be assassinated in a month. So if you want to live, you have to leave." smiled the fox.

"But, I can't just go! I have my family, I-" he stopped when he saw Kurama shaking his head.

"Heihou, you hate your family."

Before the other genin could deny, Kurama continued "I've seen your eyes when you look at them. Eyes that almost manage to hide the anger and resentment towards the watched. I have faced those eyes everyday for years now, I know what I'm talking about."

Both Hana's and Itachi's eyes hardened a little with Kurama's explanation. Itachi's resolve maintained itself and an idea began to form in the back of Hana's mind.

"I-I don't think so." was Shikamaru's answer.

"Then, please, explain to me your relationship with your father."

Of course, just preparing his answer Shikamaru understood what Arai meant. His father was a lazy, unmoving man, in more ways then one. He had refused to accept Shikamaru's achievements simply because "The Nara aren't like that". The man couldn't see that Shikamaru wasn't giving up on strategy, he wasn't turning his back to the strengths of his clan. He just wanted to find new powers for himself! What kind of father complains and scolds his son for waking up early to train?

What kind of father lectures his child daily about letting others get ahead of him? "Be the unexpected." "Make them underestimate you." There wasn't a single part of his father that believed that Shikamaru didn't need to hide, didn't need to appear weak. Shikaku just didn't accept that his son was strong and didn't need that kind of thinking all the time. But Shikamaru knew better and since he didn't want to talk back to his father, he knew all the man had done so he did respect him, the constant lectures were getting to him little by little. More then once he felt close to exploding.

And how dare Shikaku demand that he hide himself! There wasn't a single enemy of Konoha that didn't know about Nara Shikaku. "All the ground must be check for traps. Keep him in sight at all times. And light every shadow. Fail any of the three and you have already lost." he had heard a jonin say once. His father was one of the most famous jonin of Konoha and he demanded that his son pretend to be a failure?

After he was done ranting about his dad he thought about Kurama's next possible point. His mother. His friend was wrong about that one, he didn't hate her. He just didn't really know her anymore. After the beginning of the first year at the academy they simply lost touch, even if living in the same house. Since she didn't need to wake him up, force him to study or train there wasn't much that linked them because that was what she did when he was younger. Sure, she was there. Probably ready to help if he ever needed but truth be told he probably loved the memory he had of her when he was a child more then her right now. Was his mother enough to keep him from avenging one of his friends?

"I understand what you're saying. I just need to think, ok?"

"No problem. But please don't tell anyone about this." smiled Kurama.

"Oh? I can't? Shame, I was planning on asking daddy if I should betray Konoha or not." smirked Shikamaru.

"Nara." began Itachi "Kurama has told me who you want vengeance from. Since I failed to take Sasuke along with the rest of the Uchiha I wasn't planning on doing anything more to him but now... Now that I know the level of resentment he carries not only for me but for Kurama-kun as well, I won't stop you from doing what you want."

Shikamaru's and Hana's eyes widened at this, and that was just the beginning. Itachi walked towards a chest near Kurama's futon. From inside he brought a tanto and held it, grip first, to Shikamaru.

"This is the sword I used against the Uchiha. The sword that almost killed Sasuke. Have it with my blessing."

Shikamaru hesitated until...

"Take it. We will do some sparring with it tomorrow, to see if you like it. And you can always give it back if you won't use it." smiled Kurama.

Shikamaru nodded and grabbed the sword "Thank you, Itachi-san." then turned to Kurama "Kurenai-sensei says I still have to be there for team practice tomorrow so you can meet me after it."

His friend nodded and Shikamaru left. He had a lot to think about.

After he was gone Kurama turned to Hana "Please come with me."

"Kurama-kun... I don't want to leave my family behind..."

"Neither do I. Except my family is only you and aniki, possible Heihou. If you don't come, I will never be truly happy even if I stay."

Her breath caught in her throat, Hana hung her head. She simply didn't know what to do. But her wild, Inuzuka, side did and like always it told her she wanted Kurama-kun. If she left, could her rational mind forget her family? If she stayed, could her animal side forget her Kurama-kun?

This was not the kind of decision she could just make, she needed time. To think, to decide and to change her mind over and over. But when she looked up to tell him that she saw his face. There was fear, there was need and there was hurt written all over it. And she couldn't let that happen. Neither Hana nor Inuzuka could.

"I will, I will go with you Kurama-kun."

And it was worth it even if just for that second. A huge smiled appeared in his face and he moved way too fast for a genin. Kurama tackled her and brought her down to the cold hard floor. His lips crashed into hers and he pinned her hands to above her head. His entire body pressed her against her front and the wood against her back, after a few seconds she let out a whispered moan that sounded a lot like "Kurama-kun". The genin took advantage of that parting of her lips and he slid his tongue inside her mouth.

Like always there was no battle between tongues, Hana gave Kurama free entrance and allowed him to explore and mess with her mouth in anyway he wanted. First he placed a hand on her face, then he slid that hand towards her neck and continued moving it down. Until Itachi cleared his throat.

"As happy as I am for you both there is one last thing I need to talk to you about, Kurama, before I dispel." he said.

"Dispel?" asked Hana, blushing from the fact that Kurama still hadn't let her go.

"I am a Kage Bunshin." explained the Uchiha.

Kurama just sighed and got up. He offered a hand for Hana and lifted her. He turned to Itachi and waited. His aniki gave him a smile and said "I have a gift. Well, two, really."

"You don't look so good."

Shikamaru looked up to see Kurama approaching him with a scroll on his hand. The Nara heir was sited on a rock to the side of the training ground he was in, examining his new tanto with a tired frown. He now had a pair of metal bracers on his writs. The Kyuubi wanted to know why but it could wait.

"I sent Hinata to the hospital." he explained looking at his reflection on the blade.

"On purpose?"

"No... Accident. I was testing a jutsu I found in one of my clan's scrolls." his eyes finally met his friend's, the guilt in the Nara's was clear.

"Really? What does it do?" asked Kurama.

"What? Ah, it's a blinding technique. I figured it could help against the sharingan, then I got curious if it would work on the byakugan." he explained.

That got Kurama to raise an eyebrow "How the hell did she get hurt?"

"It worked, she panicked and backed away. That's when she tripped and hit her head." explained Shikamaru, waving his hand.

"And you're feeling guilty over that?"

"No, I'm not. I'm guilty of something else."

"Will you just tell me what's wrong? I'm getting tired of this." asked Kurama, scratching his neck.

Shikamaru gave a sigh "I'm going to make a choice. And I don't think I'm going to choose the good option."

"So? You're not a good guy." shrugged the Kyuubi.

"Yeah, I know. But if I kill a comrade because of anger, aren't I the same as Uchiha?"

"Arrogant, talented, selfish," the blond genin started counting on his fingers "a smirk when you win, a refusal to lose, a good amount of fan-girls, a few fan-boys..."

Crossing his arms, and then gesturing with his right hand, Kurama gave a small smile.

"I think we're both the same as Fundo." the fox's smile grew at the Nara's startled expression "The only reason we're not exactly him is that we're not Uchiha. We are not elite."

"Explain." ordered the Nara, narrowing his eyes.

"Neither of us were expected to do well, Heihou. And yet we did, so we both know that names and ancestry mean next to nothing and we can admit the other might get the best of us once in a while." Kurama sighed "That's why we wouldn't kill someone for telling us his opinion, even if we disagree, even if it pisses us off. I had the chance of killing Rikoteki-chan at my forest but I didn't. She might be annoying and sometimes she really gets on my nerves, but there are some many worse crimes that I can forgive her and so can you. But murder? Of a bleeding, defeated man? For no real reason? That's not the kind of thing I forgive so if you won't kill Fundo I want you to forfeit your match. I'll kill him myself." he finished pointing at himself.

"I don't think I can forgive him either..." Shikamaru gripped his new tanto a little tighter.

"Then make him pay. Then come with me." smiled Kurama, and before his friend could answer her continued "But you have a full month to decide. Now let's get to the sparring."

Shikamaru just nodded and got up. Turning his tanto in a reverse grip he raised an eyebrow.

"Are you going to fight me with your claws? 'Cause I know how good they are but this is steel, Arai."

"Oh don't worry about me." said the blond, unrolling the scroll he was carrying " I have a weapon now."

"I thought you didn't like them." the Nara pointed out.

"I don't like them when I can do better. But I can't imagine doing more damage then this." he actually grinned.

With a weak chakra pulse, and a massive puff of smoke, the weapon appeared in Kurama's hands and Shikamaru's eyes widened to ridiculous proportions.

He pointed at Kurama and asked "What the hell is that?"

"It's just a sword, Heihou." smiled Kurama, then he snapped his fingers "Oh! And it's also my jonin exam."

Shikamaru just sighed "Alright, one thing at a time. Were did you get that thing?"

"Aniki gave it to me yesterday."

"How did he get it?"

"He took it from a missing nin. The guy used to be one of the Kiri no Shinobigatana Shinchinin Shu (Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist)." answered Kurama.

The Nara heir scratched his head "That explains why it's so weird..." and it was. The sword was, for lack of a better comparison, a cross. The blade, that was double-edged, had five feet of length, the hilt was a bit longer then a single feet, ending in a fist sized square pommel. Each side of the guard was just a little shorter then the hilt. Said hilt was covered by black leather and everything else on the sword was a pure and unmarked silver. Truth be told the weapon didn't look like it had ever been used, except the leather looked a little worn-out. The blade was a bit shorter the Kurama, so counting the hilt the weapon was longer then him. "What's it called?"

"Gaijin Kami (Foreigner God). At least that's what the second owner called it." said Kurama, running his hand over the sword, barely touching the metal.

"Explain." the Nara said simply.

And the fox did "This sword, a claymore, wasn't made in the Elemental Nations. It was brought here by a warrior from another land a long time ago, even before the formation of the first hidden villages. The warrior wasn't capable of using chakra, or anything other then brute strength and strategy really, and he still gave any samurai he came across a hell of a beating" Kurama actually chuckled "This thing would smash through their armor without even denting."

"Let me guess: a shinobi killed him, took the sword and it's been passed by blood since then." ventured Shikamaru.

At Kurama's nod he asked another question "How is it your 'jonin exam'?"

"Aniki didn't kill the guy, so when he finds me with it he'll try to take it back. I kill him and become a jonin at my new hidden village." explained Kurama giving the sword a few practice swings, with one hand.

"How heavy is that?"

"Ten pounds." smiled Kurama, placing the sword on his shoulders.

"Bull-shit. You don't have enough muscle in both arms to swing that thing that fast." accused the Nara, Kurama was actually twisting it using only his wrist.

"I'm using chakra enhancement." shrugged the Kyuubi.

"I've felt your punches. Even with chakra you still don't have that strength yet."

"I've never used chakra enhancement before. It was training and it worked." smiled the blond.

"Wait... You've been keeping up with that Hyuga genius and the Uchiha without powering your muscles with chakra... Wow! You're a freak, Arai!" he was laughing at the end.

"Meh, Bunshin-senpai does it as well, except I'm consciously repressing the chakra. Any more questions?"

"Just one. If that sword is as old as you say, how come it looks new?"

"That's because it's not forged like our blades, it's not made to have chakra running through it. So when you push chakra into it, the sword refuses to release it. When I first grabbed it, the blade still had the chakra from the first man who won it."

And Nara aren't called "quick" for nothing "And now? Who's chakra is in it?"

The blond gave him a wide smile at that one "That leads us to my next surprise." he said, while activating another seal in the scroll.

With a second, much smaller puff of smoke, something else appeared. It was a shinning silver gauntlet. Kurama put it on and it covered until his elbow. The gauntlet was oddly soft and round, especially when compared to the sword on the genin's shoulder.

"This is the C. T. S. The Chakra Touzoku Sokei (Chakra Thief Prototype). It was being developed in the Yuki no Kuni (Land of Snow) so that genjutsu users and medics wouldn't run out of chakra during battle. Aniki caught wind of it and decided that he could use it. But then he realized I need it more." he explained.

"And why the hell do you need it? Aren't you made of chakra?"

Kurama just sighed "Yes, but I need it because of another way the Muryoku-teme (Incompetent-bastard) screwed up the seal. I realized it a few months ago and Aniki confirmed it for me. I can't regenerate chakra and in the four years of the academy, with at least a couple dozen Gokakyu no Jutsu a day, I've already lost a whole tail worth of it."

"But you're made of chakra! If your ends won't you die?" asked a very worried Shikamaru.

"Don't worry, I've already tested the Touzoku yesterday with the help of Inu-nee-chan. The gauntlet changes the nature of the chakra it drags into the coils of the wearer so there isn't any kind of rejection. To me, it means that I can reform the tail I lost." explained Kurama.

The Nara just let out a breath and asked another question "How does it steal chakra?"

Kurama just gave him a small smile and showed the palm of the gauntlet. In the middle was a thin circle that covered most of the palm. The unexpected was that the lines of the circle were made of thin, small metal fangs.

This time Shikamaru let out a sigh "It bites people doesn't it?"

Kurama nodded "Now, let's get to the sparring."

He bent his legs a little and gave his opponent his shoulder. The left arm, with the Touzoku, was between him and Shikamaru in something that resembled a "come and get me" pose. His Gaijin Kami was placed on both his shoulder, with the edge on the back of his neck, pointing at the Nara. "Weapons only." he said.

"You know, that's the first time I've ever seen you taking a stance." The Nara shifted his weight on to his left leg and his right leg was positioned a little to the side, leaving him facing Kurama. His right arm was bent in front of his face with his tanto held in a reverse grip, pointing towards his enemy. The left hand was palmed over his left, but it was just touching it lightly "I don't think I like it..."

Hyuga Hanabi was lost. That was the cover story for her mission but it also happened to be the truth. She wasn't used to walking the streets of Konoha without a branch member to guard her and they usually lead her to were she wanted to go. So she was supposed to find her sister's teammate, the Nara prodigy, in their training ground and ask for help getting home. During the trip she was to discover what she could about the boy's jutsu, the one that could apparently blind the byakugan.

Her father had sent her on the mission over a hour ago when they found out what happened to her sister and why she was in the hospital. Hyuga Hiashi was not pleased when he discovered that the Nara heir was already learning one of the Nara's most hated jutsu, specially to doujutsu users. But he quickly realized that the boy was his best chance of learning the details of the jutsu so he devised a plan and sent Hanabi.

So here she was and it only took her twenty more minutes to figure out the pattern of the training grounds. With that information she headed to where Shikamaru should be and she found him, except he wasn't alone. He was with the genin that defeated her cousin.

The thing was that, if she didn't know better, she wouldn't say this was a fight between genin. Both were faster then a lot of Hyuga chunin she knew and the blond was clearly stronger then anyone she had ever seen, he was swinging that... Thing, which was just a little bigger then him, almost as fast as the Nara's tanto was moving, with a single one of his arm. She quickly activated the byakugan and gasped from a number of things.

One, the two of them were doing something weird with their chakra. They were compressing it inside their muscles and releasing it when the muscle would contract. 'So that's why they're so fast. I wonder when Otou-san or Sensei will teach me that'. Two, they kept changing their stances. From grips to footing, it looked like they didn't know how to fight with the weapons! 'That's just silly, no one would fight like that with something they aren't good at' it really looked like they were trying to kill each other. Which leads to three, how far they were taking it. Both genin had blood flowing freely from at least two places and a lot of small cuts and bruises. The terrain was also a mess but that was probably entirely to blame on the blond. And finally four, the blond had red chakra.

Shikamaru was getting tired. Unlike his opponent he almost couldn't block so he had to dodge every time. Sure he could block Kurama's kicks, which were few, but he couldn't allow that gauntlet to touch him nor could he hold the Gaijin Kami. It was a nightmare and he had already realized that he was going to loose, it was like shogi with his father. Hopeless but helpful.

He bated the Touzoku away with his arm-guard, crouched and swung at Kurama's legs. The Kyuubi just jumped and swung his claymore downward. But the Nara was expecting that and rolled to the left. Stopping on another crouch he made to cut his opponent's foot. Said opponent just lifted that foot and used it on a frontal kick that nicked the dodging genin's head.

With his face turned back by the blow, Shikamaru rolled back and used that time to turn back to his opponent. Kurama came with a swing directed at the waist with enough strength to cleave the Nara in two. Not liking the look of that Shikamaru did something his father would consider idiotic, he charged. Running as fast as he could the genin was able to avoid the blade but ended up with the hilt digging on his side. Thankfully that just hurt a lot and didn't really cause any bleeding.

With his tanto was in a reverse grip he watched as, instead of dodging, Kurama positioned himself so the blade would hit his shoulder and nothing else. That small movement avoided a more serious injury and allowed him to palm Shikamaru wrist with his left hand. The Touzoku bit the Nara's wrist and kept him from reaching the Kyuubi with the tanto. Left with punches and kicks Shikamaru wasn't able to make his opponent let go until the chakra drain was too much for him and every thing went black.

"Well... That was fun." announced Kurama, to his downed opponent with a small smile. He made his left hand into a fist and closed his eyes 'Go Bibu!'. With his chakra turned into medical he began healing himself. He healed his shoulder to the point were he could move the arm without trouble and moved on to a gash on his hip. After all his wounds were non life-threatening he left them to heal and scar normally.

He moved to do the same for Shikamaru and said, loud and clear "You can come out now, little girl."

And she did. From behind a bush came a ten year-old that looked a lot like Mugon-san when they were that age, though her hair was a longer. And unlike Mugon-san the girl at least tried to hide the fact that she was scared of Kurama. She just wasn't good at it.

But instead of giving any kind of excuse or apologizing she asked "Why is your chakra green now?"

Kurama gave her a kind smile, that didn't match at all the blood that was all over his clothes "My kekkei genkai allows me to attune my chakra to the jutsu I need. Makes it cost less chakra." he lied.

Let her and her byakugan assume the red chakra is some kind of movement jutsu. Hanabi looked down and saw the healing chakra mending the Nara's wounds completely, unlike the blond's partial-self healing.

"Why heal him completely and allow yourself to remain hurt? You are not lacking chakra." she asked.

"Heihou has a good memory. He doesn't need scars to remember his mistakes." shrugged Kurama.

"You are lying." she accused, but Kurama smiled.

"And what are you going to do about? Come to think of it, why are you here anyway?"

Remembering her cover Hanabi said "I left the compound in a hurry so there were no branch members to accompany me. Then I lost my way more then I care to admit..." she trailed off with a trained blush.

Then Kurama gave her a small smile "Now you are lying."

Her eyes widened "Wha-Ho-How dare you!" there was more then a little anger in her surprise. How did he see through her acting so easily! She looked perfectly like a naive, lost little girl!

"You, little girl, are the daughter your father actually cares about. You don't leave the compound without an escort because if he knew you were leaving he would arrange one. And he's also the one that decides all you do, including taking a walk." he smiled at her "I really don't envy your position."

That got the rise out of her "I am one of the heirs of the Hyuga clan! The most noble clan in Konoha! And I am the one that will be the next head!"

"Maybe in a few years, but right now" he said lifting Heihou over his left shoulder, after strapping the Gaijin to his right one across his back "Your life isn't fun at all."

"Just because I have responsibilities doesn't mean I am not happy!"

"No, it just means you don't have that fun." he chuckled "I'm not saying your life is a bad one, little girl. I'm just saying I don't want it. Not everyone wants to be a Hyuga, even if in the main house."

Her anger diminished and her annoyance at being called a little girl wasn't that big so the winner of her emotions was curiosity "Why wouldn't one want to be a Hyuga? We are the best in Konoha." she said it like it was a fact.

"Maybe that's what it looks like from your compound" he started, heading towards the exit of the training ground "But tell me, who was the last Hyuga to become Hokage? Why isn't there a Hyuga amongst the elite jonin of this village? Doesn't look like such a great record to me."

"My father is the strongest of all the clan heads!" she actually yelled in indignation.

"Maybe that's true. But that's an achievement for your father, not for the Hyuga."

"What are you saying?"

"That in the battle field Iwa shinobi don't run from the Hyuga clan head. They run from Hyuga Hiashi." he smiled.

"That's because Otou-san is a Hy..." but she stopped. Completing that line of thought was saying that her father didn't achieve anything. It was saying that any and all the Hyuga were as good as her father.

"Being a Hyuga" Kurama brought her out of her reverie "doesn't make you the best, it doesn't even make you good. The byakugan just gives you potential, the rest comes from you. Talent or hard work, doesn't matter where the rest of your strength comes from, as long as you are strong. Look at your sister, she has the byakugan and nothing else."

"She has the respect of the civilians because they think she's some kind of 'kind princess' but every shinobi knows she's just weak..." agreed Hanabi.

"But she is a Hyuga, she has the byakugan just like your father." he smiled when he noticed that the girl was drinking his every word, he could probably get her to believe pigs can fly right now "Did you know that I was the one that defeated your cousin, the genius of the Hyuga?"

"Yes."

"Do you know how I was able to do it?"

"No."

"Do you want to know?" he smiled

"Yes! Tell me!"

"Because if you add the strength of the byakugan to Jima... Neji-san's talent and effort it comes out as less then if you add my kekkei genkai with my talent and effort. It's as simple as that. The byakugan is just another strength of the Hyuga and every strength can be surpassed. By those that don't have it and those that do." he finished nodding towards her.

"You think I can have something stronger then the byakugan?" she asked dumbfound.

"I also think that if you rely only on your kekkei genkai any Nara can beat you." he gestured to the passed out genin he was carrying "Everything has a weakness, but you are not limited to only one type of technique. Cover your weakness with strength from something else."

Hanabi just nodded, this guy's a genius! And he's strong and...

"Now, if you go left here and take the next two rights the Hyuga compound will be right in front of you. I'll see you another day, Chicchai-hime (Little-princess)."

While Hanabi wasn't sure she liked the nickname or not, there was nothing she could do. The blond had already carried his friend inside the hospital anyway. The Hyuga decided to go home and think, maybe do a little training, but she wanted to think a lot. About what Naruto...Nii-san said and about Naruto-nii-san as well.


	14. Chapter 14

Kyuubi no Yoko: The Second

Chapter 14: A Deal with the Devil

AN: Huh... The Hanabi-loly comment made me a little uncomfortable. But anyway, seeing Hinata's figure in Shippuden and seeing as Kurama is leaving Konoha... It's going to be while until they meet again and she will definitely not be a loly then.

And heads-up: Just because Kurama says something doesn't mean it's true.

I tried the whole omake thing and I don't think I'm going to give it another go so soon...

Nicknames:

Neko-aniki = Uchiha Itachi

Inu-nee-chan = Inuzuka Hana

Manako-chan = Yamanaka Ino

Heihou = Nara Shikamaru

Kegawa-chan = Oonishi Noriko

Fundo = Uchiha Sasuke

Niku-kun = Akimichi Choji

Mugon-san = Hyuga Hinata

Tsumeato-sensei = Umino Iruka

Subaku-san = Aburame Shino

Kemuri-jii-san = Hiruzen Sarutobi

Bunshin-senpai = Rock Lee

Jiman-senpai = Hyuga Neji

Nee-chan-senpai = Tenten

Dokuji-sensei = Maito Gai

Arai = Uzumaki Naruto (Shikamaru)

Ai = Sabaku no Gaara

Kumo = Nii Yugito

Ooki-san = Morino Ibiki

Chi-chan = Mitarashi Anko

Rikoteki-chan = Sakura Haruno

Retsu-san = Yuhi Kurenai

Muryoku-teme = Minato Namikaze

Chicchai-hime = Hyuga Hanabi

Gama Sennin = Jiraiya

Nevertheless, disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of it's original characters. Anything other then that can be used without asking for permission, but I would like if you let people know where you got the idea.

Well, shall we?

"And she wonders why nobody 'hangs out' with her after work..." said Kakashi.

He received nods from Yamanaka Inoichi, the head of the Yamanaka clan, and Morino Ibiki, commanding officer of Konoha's Torture and Interrogation force, then turned his head back to Mitarashi Anko, who was releasing enough killing intent to floor anything below chunin. Luckily there were only the four of them in the... Room.

"Well... Her little boyfriend is late by almost an hour." shrugged Ibiki.

"I wonder why... It's not like we should expect him to visit but he hasn't missed a single day so far." mussed Kakashi.

"Maybe he was caught by the chunin guards and they're punishing him." smirked Inoichi.

"I wonder why you want that, if he gets together with the bundle of fun over there doesn't that mean he breaks up with your daughter?" asked Kakashi, though he really didn't want his sensei's son with Anko of all people.

Mentioning that relationship didn't improve Inoichi's mood, but it hardly made it worse. There are few things that can get your sourer then jail after all.

The three man turned towards the door, which was Anko's focus for a while now, when it opened. They expected to see a blond genin. Instead they saw a very pissed off Sandaime Hokage.

* * *

><p><p>

Shikamaru looked up from the scroll he was reading when he heard his friend growling. He could only shake his head at the scene. For a whole hour now, Kurama stood there staring at his clenched fist with all the hate and fury he could muster.

Shikamaru had distracted himself by reading the scroll he... Borrowed from his father's library, one with more advanced Nara jutsu. He had followed the rule they had set up years ago, when they started training together, that was: "You do your thing and I do mine, unless someone needs help.". But he just couldn't take it anymore.

"Arai, what the hell are you doing?" he asked.

He had to ask again, louder, before his friend turned towards him and answered "Ever heard of a chakra cloak?"

Shikamaru just shook his head and waited for him to continue.

"It's an ability that Jinchuriki have. They can use the chakra of their biju to make them faster, stronger, heal faster and all that."

"And you think you can do it?" the Nara asked.

"I know I can do it. This body is, technically, a Jinchuriki. The problem I'm having is that the easiest ways to gain access to this power are panic and hate. And sure, I can influence this body with my own emotions but whatever happened to my host, he isn't scared or angry."

"Are you sure it's worth it?"

"You must have been really distracted if you didn't notice it." smiled Kurama, pointing at a large rock at the end of the training ground.

What Shikamaru saw widened his eyes. The rock wasn't cracked or shattered, no, it wasn't even broken. It was pierced. There was a hole in it that looked about the same width of Kurama's arm, up to the elbow.

"That's one tail." he explained "And it took me bloody twenty minutes to achieve it... And it was gone after that one punch."

"Well... Best of luck I guess... What's wrong?" he asked when he noticed the Kyuubi tense. He followed the blond's gaze and saw an old man coming towards them. "Is that... Shimura Danzo?"

"Hello Uzumaki, Nara." nodded the elder.

"Shimura-san." said Shikamaru getting up from the floor, while Kurama nodded. Of the many things Itachi and Shikaku managed to drill into the two genin was that if there's no one watching, you don't treat anyone that's not in a true position of power with too much respect. After all, Root aside, Danzo was just a councilor of the Hokage. He isn't supposed to have any real power and you don't have to pretend he does, not right now.

"I would like to speak with Uzumaki, alone."

"I can do that." Kurama gave him a small smile and patted Shikamaru on his shoulder twice. Each time sending Shikamaru a different location on the trees around them. The Nara heir sat down and Danzo felt the boy's chakra spike for a second. But he didn't say anything as Kurama lead him to the other side of the clearing.

After getting there the Kyuubi crossed his arms and waited. But not for long.

"I know of your plans to leave Konoha. And I am the reason why Sarutobi doesn't as well."

The blond closed his eyes and cursed inside his mind. When opened then he bombarded the elder with as much killing intent as he could muster. To Danzo's credit he didn't bat an eye at first, but since the boy didn't let up it started taking his toll. Danzo clutched his walking stick and wondered why hadn't his ANBU interfered yet.

"My friend has them. Kagemane no Jutsu (Shadow Imitation Technique) if I'm not mistaken."

Just as Danzo prepared to fight the genin, the killing intent vanished.

"What was the point of that? We both know you can't kill me. Without my help the council will execute you within a week."

"Just wanted you too know that I'm not tamed. Whatever you want, don't push too far." explained the genin.

"I am not weak, boy." sneered the elder.

"I know. But if I can have you run around for long enough, I bet you'll give yourself I heart attack." smiled the Kyuubi, then he grew serious "What do you want?"

"I want to put a locating seal on you. And in return, I will help in your escape."

'One would think that not telling on me would be more then enough of a trade' thought Kurama "I don't need help escaping."

"Maybe you can get away during the battle, boy. But what will you do when the Hokage sends his hunter nin?"

"They just won't catch us where we're going." smiled the fox.

Danzo narrowed his eyes "Oh? Itachi's village? Maybe you haven't heard what happened yet..."

"That Aniki's fledgling village is no more? I'm aware. You can't expect anything to survive a battle between monsters like that." chuckled the Kyuubi.

"So you know what happened. You know he lost to Pein. You know whe..." but he stopped himself.

'So that's what you want. You want to know what rock Aniki's hiding under. You want to find the weakened and injured Itachi and you want to kill him.' Kurama almost growled at the man "I do. And no deal."

"And what about Mitarashi? I can get her out of that jail." there was a slight note of anxiety in Danzo's voice.

"The Hokage will get her out. The idiots in the council actually locked up a clan head, they won't be able to hide that."

The fact that Danzo smiled didn't please Kurama at all.

"Sarutobi has already discovered what happened. Unfortunately he wasn't able to get Mitarashi free along with the others. She has always been on probation, due to the... Circumstances of her return to the village." Danzo smiled for only a second more.

The killing intent was bad the first time. But now it was horrible. The elder was actually forced to counter with his own, lest he suffocate. Danzo could swear he could see orange chakra bubbling from the genin's skin. And just like that, it was gone.

"You will keep her from being put together with other prisoners. In fact, you will keep her in that same cell and you won't allow anyone to be put in there with her. We both know the guards won't protect her and she won't be able to fight with chakra suppression seals." Kurama growled again. The killing intent was gone, but the anger remained "When the invasion starts you will send someone to remove the seals and open the cell. That's all I need from you. But when you place the seal on me, Shikamaru will be present."

"I can do it right now." Danzo had to keep himself from smiling. The boy had no clue how little he was asking for how and much Danzo would gain.

"No. You know where I live. You will meet us there, this time tomorrow."

The elder nodded and Kurama walked back to his friend.

"Let's go." he told the Nara "I need to talk to Chi-chan and I can't leave you alone with them."

* * *

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Anko was a dangerous woman even when she was in a good mood. And, right now, she was in one of the worse moods she could remember in years. She had actually hoped when she saw the Sandaime standing on the door. She had actually smiled when he told them he came to get them out. And then he told her she would have to "stay just a while longer".

The reason she was in jail was also a ridiculous one. Hatake decided that he wouldn't teach anymore. Not surprising considering one of his genin killed a comrade. The shinobi council understood but the civilian council threatened him, which didn't work, tried to blackmail him, but he pointed out he reads smut all day, and finally locked him up (without anyone knowing). Then they told Ibiki to get him to cooperate and Ibiki said "No.". After he was placed in this cell they had turned to Anko, begrudgingly. Since neither Ibiki nor Kakashi outright hated her and SHE hated the entire council, even if this one was just the civilians, her answer was very close to Ibiki's, but with a lot more swearing.

Their last resort was Yamanaka Inoichi himself, while she guessed he wouldn't mind having a go at her brain he wouldn't be able to excuse himself to the Hokage, when all this comes to light, on why he tortured only her. So he joined them yesterday. And since arresting a council member is a little difficult to keep under covers, the Hokage found out and struck a deal with the council. Kakashi, Ibiki and Yamanaka get out without a fuss if she stayed in. She could tell he was really sorry for her, he was one the only one that really wanted to help her. But she was tired of the fact that he never could.

It was not fair. It just wasn't fair! Why did they continue to punish her for something she did when she was a kid? Students follow their sensei! That's how it works! Specially if the sensei is all the student has. Specially if he goes on and on about how the village betrayed him and set him up... But Konoha doesn't forget... Ever. She and Naru-chan would be the examples of that for as long as they lived.

But apparently Naru-chan forgets. He promised her that he would come everyday. She didn't even know how he learned that she was in here but she wasn't going to complain. He would come, talk to her, ignore everyone else in the cell and promise to buy her dango when she got out. It was a testament to the kind of life that she lived, that the fact that she was being visited by a teen while in jail was one of the things that made her the happiest she could remember being.

But now he was gone. Somewhere in the back of her mind she realized that he had just missed a day. He might have trained too hard or something big might have happened. But alone in this cell all she could think was that he wasn't there for her. Nobody was. She really should get used that.

And that's when the door opened. Looking up Anko saw her favorite blond genin, her favorite person really, coming in.

"Hey, Chi-chan. Sorry I'm late. I-" but she interrupted him.

"It's ok! I'm just glad you're here." she gave him a huge teary smile, not a spot of malice, mocking or joking in it.

"Where are the three?" he asked looking inside the cell.

"The Hokage came to get them out." she whispered looking down "But I was on probation..." she trialled off when she looked up and saw the hate in Kurama's eyes, focused on the small window the room had. Outside was quite a nice view of Konoha

But when he looked at her his eyes grew soft, understanding and caring "If Kemuri-jii-san won't get you out of here, I will."

Anko did I double take at that "Wha-What? How?"

"I'll tear this place down if I need to." he guaranteed her.

"And then what? You would make an enemy out of Konoha. You-"

"You're worth it."

The Snake Mistress couldn't believe her ears. Someone would fight for her? Someone would fight a whole village for her? But no! They would kill him! The village hated Naru-chan enough without him doing anything! If he helped HER of all people they woul-

"If I can find a place for us to go. If I can get my Aniki, Uchiha Itachi, to help us. Will you come with me?"

For all her worries, she didn't miss a beat.

"Yes."

"Good. Now, where ever we go needs to have dango. I'm still waiting to try it." he gave her the Kurama smile.

"What! You still haven't tried it? It's sooooo good! What are you waiting for?" she was smiling again, the real smile. She just couldn't smile like that for anyone else.

"You. What else?"

* * *

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"But without emotion there can't be ambition and without ambition you will limit your potential. The desire, the need to do something turns the hard into easy and the impossible into possible. So if we follow the belief that a shinobi must be an emotionless toll, all our shinobi will be able to do the hard, ugly jobs that most of us can't take. But we won't have people as strong as Hatake Kakashi, who reached the level he has now to clear his family name, or the Shodai Hokage, who created this village in attempt to bring peace to the world." explained Kurama.

It was two weeks after the end of the second phase of the chunin exams and he was sitting in the shade of a tree at the edge of his usual training ground. The lecture was for Hanabi's benefit while Ino had her head on his lap and he ran his hand through her hair. The touch was actually necessary since he was sending Ino his thoughts (How he did that while talking never ceased to amaze her).

'I know how much I'm asking of you, Hime. But I can't live here. I can't even take you to a decent restaurant, even with Henge, since everyone knows you're with me.'

'But what about my family? My c-clan? Where will we go? Wh-Who are you taking with you? Oonishi? T-Tenten?'

She couldn't really keep a poker face during this conversation so she just buried her face on Kurama's stomach. That also meant she didn't see the daggers Hanabi was glaring at her, well not daggers, really. More like butters knifes but there was still glaring.

'Your family never accepted me anyway, Saiai (Beloved). We can't be together for long if I stay. And no, I'm not taking Kegawa-chan or Nee-chan-senpai. I'm leaving with people that really need to flee, but I'm only asking people I can't live without.'

"What's your ambition, Nii-san?" asked Hanabi.

"I want everyone I love happy and healthy. I want everyone who wishes me or my loved ones hurt to be dead or harmless. And I need a ridiculous amount of power for that." he explained.

Hanabi was trying to figure out how something so simple would need so much work and Ino was doing her best not to cry. She didn't even hear what Kurama was telling the Hyuga, she just felt like shit because of the choice she just made.

"Ok, Chicchai-hime. Here's your homework. I want to know your ambition, why and I want you to research to the best of your ability what is a 'Jinchuriki'." he waited for the girl to nod, and she did. But she also asked a question.

"Why?"

"Because I am a Jinchuriki. Is the reason Konoha hates me." he smiled.

"So it's a bad thing?" after following her Nii-san around she saw how he was treated and now she had a chance to understand why.

"No, it's just another power. But people are stupid, never forget that. Now go, give me sometime alone with my Hime." he ordered and the girl pouted, but she did go home.

Just as Ino was informing him of her choice the chakra signature that had been following him all day decided to make itself know.

"That's a very healthy view of Jinchuriki." came a voice from behind the tree he had his back to.

"Down the other path lay madness." he explained with the usual small smile while Ino looked around trying to find the speaker.

To his right appeared a middle aged man with a few wrinkles. He had long white hair tied in a ponytail that reached his waist. He wore very traditional clothing, mainly in a dark green and red. He had a horny hitai-ate with the kanji for "oil" and a huge scroll on his back. He also smelled like frogs.

"You are the Gama Sennin (Toad Sage). Why are you eavesdropping on me?" asked Kurama.

The man looked a little put out, and any who knew him would know it was because he couldn't introduce himself, but he smiled and said "It's because I want to teach you, gaki. What do you say?"

Ino was absolutely flabbergasted. One of the Densetsu no Sannin (Legendary Three Ninja) was right in front of her, had spied on their private moment, didn't even apologize and wanted to teach her boyfriend.

Of course, anyone who knew Kurama knew he had severe trust issues "Why me?"

"W-What?"

"Why do you want to teach me? You have better things to do then lead some random genin around."

"Well... I figured I could help you! From what my sensei told me your two rivals are clan heirs, both have libraries of jutsu to choose from and I think I could give you an edge!" he grinned at his reasoning.

"So you have talked to the Hokage about me? How did I come up in a conversation between the two most powerful shinobi in Konoha?"

Both Ino's and Jiraiya's eyes were wide and their jaws on the floor. Why was he fighting this so much?

The Sennin stuttered something and Kurama sighed "The only reason I can think of is my father, but if that was the case you would have been here years ago."

There was absolute silence in the training ground and Jiraiya looked like he wanted to burrow somewhere far from view.

"Naruto-kun, who was your father?" Ino asked.

The Kyuubi looked like he ate something sour, he really didn't want to say this but "The Yondaime Hokage."

"How do you know that?" asked Jiraiya, while Ino's brain shut down.

"Well... I have eyes and a working brain. I have a lot of reasons for reaching this conclusion but my proof is that you are not denying it, Gama Sennin."

Ino turned her eyes to the Sannin and waited until...

"It's true, gaki. Your father was Minato Namikaze, the Yondaime Hokage." he sighed.

If he was hoping for crying or laughing he didn't get either.

"I know. What does that have to do with the reason why you want to teach me?"

"I-Well... I am your godfather and I also own it to your father to make you as strong as I can. I know I wasn't here when you needed me but I can be now. What do you say?"

"I say no."

Jiraiya looked like he wasn't going to drop it and Ino was looking at him like he had sprouted a second head, so he sighed and explained.

"So far I have only had two real teachers. They taught me the very basic and answered my questions but I learned everything else on my own. From taijutsu to water walking, I have learned from trial and error and research. I don't trust anyone to create MY path to power, I will carve it BY and FOR myself. I will steal the jutsu I can and I will create my own. I have refused being trained even by my jonin sensei, who happens to be one of the two teachers I mentioned. People like me, Gama Sennin, can not afford to own anything to anyone."

Jiraiya swallowed a lump on his throat.

"Are you sure you aren't just angry at Minato?" he asked in a very small voice.

"Maybe if he was alive, but the idiot is already dead." he shrugged.

"I-Idiot?" asked Ino, the Yondaime was the hero of their village after all.

"I would call him worse but I can't really hate a dead man. Not one who died in a such a noble and stupid way." he sighed, he might be lying about his reasons but he truly didn't hate the Yondaime (it was just a monumental dislike), he didn't even remember the man sealing him "I am very tired, I'll see you another day, Manako-chan. If you will excuse me, Gama Sannin."

He left without waiting for any answers. Leaving a very deject Sannin watching him go. A few minutes of staring at where the genin disappeared Jiraiya remembered the boy's girlfriend and turned to see her glaring at him.

"You've cost me my Naruto-kun time." she huffed and left as well.

With a sigh and a shake of his head the Gama Sannin started the walk towards the Hokage's office.

* * *

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Sarutobi knew something was wrong when his student entered his office using the door instead of the window. He put his small orange book away, he was on a break from his paperwork, and waited for Jiraiya to speak.

"He said no." explained Jiraiya, causing Sarutobi to choke in surprise.

"Wh-What? Why?"

"He doesn't want a teacher, sensei. He says he learned everything so far on his own and that's how he wants it." he sighed for what seemed the hundredth time since talking to the gaki "He also knows who his father is."

Sarutobi just breathed heavily and rubbed the bridge of his nose "How?"

"Says he has eyes and a working brain!" he laugh before turning serious "He said so and I asked 'How do you know?' then he answered 'You just confirmed it for me'."

The Hokage shook his head "And now what? He wants the name? Should we give him his father's letter?"

"He definitely doesn't want the name and if we give him the letter he might tear it to shreds. He really is trying his best not to hate Minato but I don't think he will succeed." said Jiraiya.

"Minato was a very forgiving men, do you think he is like his father?"

"You don't know him?"

Sarutobi shook his head sadly "No. He doesn't trust me at all, Jiraiya-kun. I failed him too much."

"Then there's your answer, sensei. He lives in the woods dammit! How did that happen!" demanded Jiraiya, shifting his anger from himself to his teacher.

"He didn't fell safe in the village so he left. It was as simple as that. And every time I sent someone to bring him back to the village, he just left again. So I gave up and did my best to keep him safe." said the Sandaime, looking like everyone of his sixty nine years of age.

Before Jiraiya could argue more Sarutobi spoke "And now, the worries of the council. What can you tell me?"

"They're sound. He really is friends with the redhead Suna shinobi. They met for lunch today. The other boy gave him some kind of arm guard, looks kinda like a rib cage and it's brown. It's really ugly, but the gaki just said thanks and put it on. Didn't even take it off when his girlfriend complained about it. Anyway, they talked and it sounds like the redhead has a crush on some Kumo kunochi" he gave a small perverted giggle at that "and the gaki gave him some advice. That was it really... I don't know if they are planning something but they really are friends. And everywhere I look and anyone I ask tells me that yes, Sabaku no Gaara is supposed to be an unstable killing machine. Something's wrong sensei."

"Maybe he doesn't fell alone? Knowing Naruto-kun and the Kumo kunochi are like him?" tried the Hokage.

"Maybe... But from what I can get it sounds like he would try to kill them before befriending them. Jinchuriki or not..."

"Very well... And finally, Hiashi's worries. What is he doing with young Hanabi?"

"Teaching her philosophy." when he saw his sensei's face he continued "I'm serious. He talks about what he believes in, what it means to be a shinobi. He keeps asking her that type of question and telling her to think. Today he told her to research Jinchuriki. I think he's going to tell her about the Kyuubi."

"Just like that?" asked the Hokage with a raised eyebrow.

"Yes. He either doesn't think she'll back away, wants her to or doesn't care. From the lack of response I also think the Yamanaka girl knows."

"Very well. Thank you for you help, Jiraiya-kun. Do you think you will approach him again?"

Jiraiya's answer was directed completely at the floor "Maybe in a few months or a year. I'm not going to get through to him right now."

"And what about your worries about that... Akatzuki? And that masked man Minato killed the night of the Kyuubi attack?"

"I don't know what happened inside Akatzuki after that night but they became some kind of ANBU down at Ame. The masked man must have been really important because they disbanded outside of Ame after he died. I know they aren't a danger to Jinchuriki anymore and that's what matters for now."

They both nodded at that and continued to worry about the Yondaime's legacy.

* * *

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The next day found Kurama and Shikamaru sparring once again. Just this time, it wasn't against each other.

'Katon: Gokakyu no Jutsu!' thought Kurama as he spit a massive fireball towards his target, who prepared to dodge until...

"Futon: Daitoppa! (Wind Release: Great Breakthrough!)" shouted Shikamaru creating a massive gust of wind, inflating Kurama's attack and making it almost as big as a 'Goka Mekkyaku (Great Fire Annihilation)'.

Seeing the inferno that was coming made Hana stop. After that second she ran through a few seals and said "Doton: Moguragakure no Jutsu. (Earth Release: Hiding like a Mole Technique.)" and disappeared underground.

Kurama didn't spare her a second glance, although he kept his focus on her chakra signature. He punched Shikamaru slightly on the shoulder. The bystanders, meaning their three teammates, couldn't understand what they were doing but he was sending a small burst of chakra into his friend every time he did it.

Not missing a beat he dash forward in a massive burst of chakra. Moving at almost jonin speed he closed in on the Second Brother and grabbed his neck with the Touzoku and twisted his wrist a little, so the dog couldn't bite. A glance to the right had him kicking the Third Brother away and into Shikamaru's Kagemane no Jutsu.

Knowing he had taken a lot of chakra from the dog he kicked it hard, up and away. He turned to look at First Brother that was running towards him and prepared his jutsu. When a Gatsuga came out of the ground he used a Kawamiri and changed places, leaving the First Brother to take the blow.

He turned to check on Shikamaru to see the last dog overpowering him. But he knew something was wrong, since his chakra coils felt like they were burning. If a low-level genjutsu would hurt him like this he could only imagine how bad it could get. Shaking his head Kurama let out a shout and a huge burst of chakra "Kai! (Release!)".

Free from the illusion he saw Shikamaru freeing himself from another genjutsu and running towards the Third Brother. Said dog was fallen on his back, trying to imitate human running because of the Kagemane. Before turning to see Hana's Gatsuga he was able to see Shikamaru trowing a single shuriken at a random direction. His trained eyes could see one of the blades painted yellow, and knowing the signal he used another Kawamiri to change places with it.

When he appeared he noticed that he was very close to Kurenai and not knowing Shikamaru's plan, he made one of his own. He dashed towards Kurenai and made to engage her in taijutsu. He threw two jabs and a straight at her and, sure enough, she dodged the straight and tried to get him with a spinning elbow, just like Shikamaru told him she did. Instead of dodging he jumped and reached for a scroll on the side of his belt.

The elbow was infused with chakra and hurt quite a bit. It also sent him flying and left him helpless against Hana's Gatsuga. Until he unsealed the Gaijin Kami and smashed the side of the blade to the side of the drill. There was a sickening crack and Kurama turned his attention to Kurenai again. Her eyes were wide then narrowed. That's until Shikamaru threw two kunai at her. One had an explosive tag and the other had a red handle.

The jonin easily dodged the weapons and turned back to the genin with the giant sword. Only to see him disappear in a puff of smoke and a kunai with a red handle fly from the cloud. Turning back she was greeted with the sight of an airborne Kurama who had grabbed the kunai next to him and sent it at her.

Taking one of her own kunai she batted it away. Only for the tag to explode and cover her with some gas she decided not to breath. As soon as she got out of the cloud she couldn't move anymore.

"Kagemane no Jutsu" explained a voice, she was turned around to see Kurama subduing Hana quite easily, do to her broken arm and his sword.

Kurama pushed his sensei down and pressed his sword against her neck.

"And that's that." he smiled, putting the Gaijin down and moving to take a look at her arm. It was bent at a very ugly angle.

Before he could touch it Hana asked "A kiss for the pain?"

He turned to make sure neither Kurenai nor Hinata were watching. Kurenai was too busy talking to Shikamaru and Hinata was a little scared of meeting his eyes. The only ones watching him were Ino and Noriko, but he didn't mind. He gave her a quick but strong kiss and started working. He changed from his Katon for to his medical chakra form.

Then, just like his Inu-nee-chan taught him he felt her arm for the break and found three big shards and a few small ones. He sighed and created blunt Chakura Mesu, then deactivated them. He removed the Touzoku so that he wouldn't hurt her more and activated them again. Kurama slapped himself and undid the jutsu, then proceeded to hold a pressure point to knock her out.

Finally he got to work and after and hour managed to gather every piece of bone in the right place. Then he proceeded to pump a stupid amount of chakra to encase every part of the bone and they started sticking together. After twenty minutes he was done and the bone was as good as new.

He turned to see that Heihou was still talking to Kurenai, he seemed to really like doing that. Kurama picked Hana up, bridal style, and carried her towards the three girls. He placed her under the shade of the tree and sat down, he also gave himself a moment to scratch his shoulder.

"Wow, Naruto-kun! I can't believe you and Shikamaru just beat two jonin!" said Ino, beaming with... Pride?

"Well... For jonin of Konohagakure no Sato their team work wasn't that great... Besides, Inu-nee-chan's not a fighter." he concluded.

"What do you mean?" asked Noriko.

"She's a medic, Kegawa-chan. And she's also only at low jonin level, the only reason she's even teaching us is because the Sandaime couldn't trust other jonin not to kill me." whatever the reason, he's smile showed that he was happy with the choice. He did take the time to rub his shoulder again.

"Naruto-kun, what's wrong with your shoulder?" asked Noriko.

"Why do you think there's something wrong?" 

"You've been scratching it since last Friday..." she trailed off, waiting for the answer to her question.

"It's a seal. Shikamaru found a notebook by a friend of his father that has a whole lot of them. And we have been messing with them." he explained.

"I think that's a bad idea, Naruto-kun." said Ino, worry evident in her face.

"Don't worry, we're being careful. This is just one of the few I have. And there's nothing wrong with it, the sealer just wasn't very careful but it's working alright." he smiled.

Then Kurama moved to grab Ino's hand after she got up. He pulled her down on him so she wouldn't shout Shikamaru's ear off, since she thought he was to blame, it was best Kurenai didn't find out about the seals.

From the side Noriko watched as Naruto-kun subdued Ino-chan and she proceeded to cuddle into his chest. After that things kept going and after a while they were making out, before Hana came to or Kurenai-sensei stopped them. She could fell a uncommon pang of sadness. She was never bothered by Naruto-kun's multiple affections, she had actually always felt that she was the intruder in someone else's happiness, not the opposite.

But this past few days she hadn't been allowed to intrude. Naruto-kun hadn't been given her any attention, to make matters worse he had been showering Hana-sensei and Ino-chan with it.

* * *

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Omake: Preparation for the flight: Kura-Shika-Saba

"Two days until the chunin exam!" agreed the three friends, toasting with sake. It was honestly surprising that everyone was able to say it, they were all very... Happy right now.

"I-I ca-can really tell, man. This thing is going to be REEEEAAALLLY fun." said Kurama, pointing at Gaara.

"Fun? There's like, a lot... No... How do I say this and that... Oh, yeah! So much that could go wrong and shit. I'm going to be nervous all day." said the redhead, only for Shikamaru to scoff.

"Oh! Really? I'm gonna wake up that day and say 'Morning bird, morning flowers, and grass and dirt and toast and sake and mom and deer. I'mma gonna kill some mother furrrrrer today!'" yelled the Nara.

Luckily they had left the bar a while ago. Some chunin said he didn't want to drink in the same place as the "demon brat" and then they beat the crap out of the guy. Seriously, even Gaara started slugging him. After that everything went to hell. Some customers saw the chance to "punish" Kurama while others decided that the boy had enough. The result was almost war.

Luckily there wasn't a single person with enough motor functions to use jutsu, "The Shelter" being a bar where only shinobi go and with only the intention of getting completely drunk. Still, this one guy cut his own fingers off with Chakura Mesu. Being a place full of shinobi and kunochi, nobody missed the sight of bloody and everyone thought that someone in there was using a weapon. Then kunai were flying and someone lost a LOT of blood and the three friend decided to get the hell out. It wasn't until they were laughing their asses off in some alley that Kurama and Shikamaru noticed that Gaara had swiped sake. Three bottles of sake, one in each hand and one on his mouth. They agreed that they wouldn't get home tonight, toasted and started drinking and talking about their great escape.

Kami himself must want them out of this village because there wasn't a soul around to listen.

"Bah! I woke up like that for years! Except, you know, no flowers in Suna, or grass and a lot of dirt... And I have no mom!" that's when Sabaku no Gaara started hugging Shikamaru and crying.

"Sh-Sh! It's ok little man! Kurama doesn't have a mother either, right?" he turned to his friend to confirmation "See! Everything's going to be alright."

Then he hugged and started consoling Kurama. The blond just raised an eyebrow and took another gulp of sake. 'Yup, girls are definitely better.'

Then Shikamaru punched him "FUCK YOU! I was trying to help! You were crying like a little girl with a broken leg and... No wait... You were crying." he turned to the moon and tried to hug it, only to fall flat on his back.

Gaara took another drink from his bottle and poked Kurama. Once, twice, thrice "Aren't you getting annoyed?" he asked.

"I have sake." answered the fox.

"Yeah... Oh! Wanna hear a secret?" he whispered to the blond.

"Hit me."

After the punch Gaara started talking.

"I think my sister has a crush in the NaaaAAaaaAAra!" he yelled and burst out laughing.

"WHAT?" asked Shikamaru, the moon's comfort could wait.

Gaara just snickered and then noticed the two were looking at him "Oh, right! Uh... She was worried I was going to try to have a lot of mates like Kurama and then she wanted to know how the hell he convinced the girls to like convinced the girls to like convinced the girl to like" just as Kurama prepared to slap him he continued "accept it. So she liked spied on you" he pointed between the two other genin and drank some more "and she saw you." his hand stayed on the same place.

Then he passed out.

"You know... I've been seeing that girl, like, everywhere. Dango, ramen, training ground, my house... Oh wait, no... That was my mom... Well she must be really good! I haven't seen her once since the exams ended!"

That was the scene Temari found a few minutes later. Her brother hadn't come home after leaving to meet his friends and she had gotten worried. After searching for him for over an hour she found him, the Kurama/Uzumaki person and Shikamaru-kun, not that she would call him that out loud. Her brother was passed out and the other two were complimenting her! Sure, they were really drunk so she would take everything with a pinch of salt but they were still the guy she liked and his best friend!

And they only made the "she has a metal fan, she must like it hard" joke once! They were awesome drunks, she just might join them next time.

She also wants you to know that MisterJoke does not encourage substance abuse.


End file.
